Lost and Found
by Thrippa
Summary: Rouge finds an unexpected 'treasure' in the heart of Eggman's island base, that remembers only his name and a single, tragic event. If Doctor Eggman is right that Shadow has nothing to remember, why does he keep getting glimmers of other memories?
1. Lost and Found

**A/N: **Welcome to part three of the series: _Lost and Found_. If you have not read_ Descent into Darkness: A Tragedy in the Name of Love _or _Ascent into Light_ (both posted here), then it is recommended that you have at least played _Sonic Adventure 2 _(or _SA2B_). Also, if you have not read the prior stories, 'dokan' is the word I'm using for the humanoid animal races in the Sonic-verse; 'furry' sounds silly and is too narrow (are the Babylon Rogues then 'featheries'?) and 'anthropomorph' or similar terms are too long. Other than that, this is more loosely linked to the base game(s) than the prior stories. There is a lot of story in Heroes that got shoved behind the scenes, and if this goes into _ShTH_, that's a whole other level of complexity. Obviously, there will be spoilers for the above.

On with the story:

**Lost and Found**

The corridor was empty, except for the accumulated dust and sand of several months of neglect. Despite the tight-sealed doors separating the corridor from the still-used portions of the base, sand seemed to end up everywhere.

The silence was disturbed by a metallic clinking sound, followed by a faint scraping noise. Eventually the ventilation mesh in the ceiling was lifted aside, allowing the unmistakable form of a dokan to drop down into the corridor. Rouge the Bat glanced quickly up and down the corridor, then permitted herself to relax slightly. There was no indication that anyone - or anything - was aware of her entry, and clearly even the cleaning robots didn't come this way. She moved towards the large, solid metal doors that stood between her and her goal, glad to be out of the glare at last. Humans and the diurnal dokan might enjoy a day at the beach, but to a bat the Piscine islands on a midsummer day were simply _too bright_.

She considered the keypad a moment, then tried the code that she had been provided with when she received her instructions for her current mission. She grinned in delight as the doors powered up and slid open. "This must be _it_! I've found Eggman's secret treasure!" The code and location of the base had been part of her briefing, but the layout had not been known, and this vault was well hidden. _And well sealed_, she thought, glancing a bit uneasily at the massive doors as she stepped between them. _If they close while I'm in here, no one would ever hear me, even standing just outside the doors._ But then, she'd never been trapped in a vault yet, and she'd been in plenty of them. Well, except that time on Prison Island when she'd been rescued by– she shook her head sharply; distractions could cause unwanted complications. Stepping towards a large structure with a glowing green top, she speculated eagerly as to what sort of treasures might lie herein.

The green glow made her think greedily of Chaos Emeralds, but it appeared rather to be some sort of fluid, with a darker shape floating inside it. She frowned at the keyboard on the front of the unit and tapped in the Doctor's standard password, then looked up in delight as the fluid began to drain and the top hatch of the pod cracked open.

Delight turned to jaw-dropping shock as she realized what –no, _who_ was inside the pod. Then suddenly the room exploded with noise and flare; the next thing she knew she was lying on her back on the concrete with an impossibly familiar red-and-black hedgehog crouched over her, while machine guns bullets ricocheted off the walls and equipment in the room. "Stay here," the hedgehog ordered, and jumped away.

"Shadow!" she gasped, then with great presence of mind crept out the door, peeking back in to see a large red robot trying to pick Shadow off as he bounced from wall to wall on the attack.

"Must destroy all Eggman robots!" The mechanical voice had to belong to the robot.

"Huh?" Her agile mind suddenly seeing a way to make use of both the room's residents, Rouge jumped back into the room as Shadow launched himself for the robot. "Hey, hold up!" Diving between them she shoved the robot's gun arm upwards and flung her other hand towards Shadow, who skidded to a stop. It wasn't until the pair _did _stop that it occurred to her what could have happened if they _hadn't_.

"Shadow's not a robot, he's a dokan like me," she said to the robot, shaking off her belated attack of nerves. "So stop trying to shoot him up.

"Why do you want to destroy all of Eggman's robots anyway?"

"I am E-123 Omega. I was created by Eggman as the strongest of all of his E-series robots, then he locked me up here to kill anyone who tried to come in and activate that unit." For a moment Rouge thought the robot meant Shadow, then realized it was referring to the capsule in which Shadow had been contained.

"But you're not trying to kill me now," she said cautiously, hoping that the reminder wouldn't provoke another attack.

"I was left here to prevent anyone trying to activate the unit," was the mechanical reply. You are not currently trying to activate the unit, so I have no reason to kill you. As the unit has been activated, I no longer have to remain here on guard. Therefore I must prove that I am the strongest of Dr. Eggman's robots by destroying all of the other robots."

"Eggman won't like that very much," mused the bat. Shadow was gazing rather blankly around the room, looking like he'd been hit over the head once too often.

"I did not like being locked in this room very much," responded the robot almost primly.

A corner of Rouge's mouth quirked in amusement. The robot was angry with its creator and therefore was going to defy him by acting on the actual letter of its commands. She looked at the dazed hedgehog. "What about you, Shadow? We all thought you were dead when you fell after the ARK was saved. How did you end up _here_, of all places?"

"What?" The other looked at her in perplexity. "Shadow... ...that's _my_ name. What's an ARK?" Glaring at Omega, he added, "I do know I don't like being shot at."

Rouge stared at him in surprise. How could anyone forget saving the entire planet!? _But then... if he fell to Earth... __**Could **__he have survived that? _ She remembered the report she'd made up for the president during that incident. Shadow had been created in an attempt to capture eternal life and youthfulness, and to have incredible healing abilities. If anyone on the planet could survive plummeting through the atmosphere, it would be the Ultimate Life-Form. Nodding slightly to herself, she announced, "Now I get it...now I know what this is all about." To Omega, "You're mad at Eggman for sealing you in this room! And you..." she looked at Shadow, who had turned his back on her and the robot. "You can't remember anything, can you? Then let's get this settled! We can go looking for Eggman together!" She took the other two's hands and linked them with her own. "Yeah baby! This makes us a TEAM!"


	2. Secrets Unrevealed

1. Secrets Unrevealed

The white female bat had taken charge. Something suggested vaguely that that wasn't right, but any attempt to pursue the thought caused it to dissolve into nothingness. Similarly, the robot engendered faint distrust, but again there was no reason to be found. He didn't know where he was, nor why he was there, but the room and its equipment were in severe shambles after the abortive battle. It didn't seem like where he _should_ be, but again, he didn't know why. The only thing he was certain of was that his name was Shadow. The bat appeared to know something about him. There seemed to be nothing of interest in the rubble of the room he was in. Therefore, he decided to go along with the pair until he worked out what he should be doing.

The bat, Rouge, was already leading the way out of the room. The red robot clumped after her, and Shadow, after a moment's hesitation, brought up the rear. Out in the hallway, the bat glanced up at a square hole in the ceiling, then at the robot. Clearly there was no way the latter would fit through the former. With a shrug she pointed towards a large door at the far end of the hall and asked, "Omega, can you open that?"

The robot raised an arm and wordlessly blasted the door to smithereens. Rouge blinked, then moved forward, stepping carefully over and between the twisted metal shards that were all that remained. Again, Shadow let the robot precede him.

As Shadow hopped carefully through the doorway, another robot - actually three other robots - came around a corner and spotted them. Rouge leaped into the air and did a spinning kick that resulted in a metal-toed boot removing a robotic head, while the other two robots were smashed by Omega's fists. Shadow walked forward and looked at the remains, then at Omega. _Why–?_ It didn't occur to him to question how he knew what a robot was, but he didn't understand why the one - in spite of its attacking him - should be with them while the others were destroyed.

Rouge picked up on his confusion, apparently. "These are Eggman's usual drones; they're called Eggpawns. If they spread the alarm, others that are armed will come to capture or kill us," she explained. "Omega is a different type of robot, an E-series, which were smarter and more individual than the Eggpawns. He's against Eggman and his robots, so that puts him on our side, at least for now." She cocked her head at the dark hedgehog until he nodded.

"So," Shadow said slowly, "any robots I see that look like this, I should attack, and any that look like Omega..."

"There are no other robots like me," interrupted Omega. "I am the last of the E-series; all others have been destroyed."

"Yeah," agreed Rouge, "just attack any robots you see unless I tell you otherwise - pretty much anything you see will be Eggman's and therefore will attack us on sight."

"Eggman must be located so that this unit can destroy him," announced Omega. "Sensors do not detect a human presence in this base. We should leave and attempt to discover where he has gone."

"We need to get to the palace on Whale Island," said Rouge. "He's got a small sea/air port near there, and that's where I've got my vehicle hidden. I think he's gone on to his current project in Future City. –You needn't look at me like that, Shadow, _I_ didn't name it.

"So let's go, you two. The exit's this way." She strode off with a confidence that left the black hedgehog vaguely envious. He looked around again at the bare walls and textured steel floor of the corridor, now littered with robotic debris, feeling like he was only half awake. As Omega's scarlet form disappeared around a corner, he finally followed, slowly.

Shadow trailed Rouge and the robot through several corridors and intersections before finally asking, "How do you know where you're going?"

"The people I work for gave me some information, and I've been in a number of Eggman bases before. He tends to build to the same general plan. You don't remember his pyramid base?"

It was really more a statement than a question, but Shadow shook his head. "Was it like this?" Nothing around him seemed familiar.

"Hardly," replied the bat, tossing a smirk over her shoulder. "Well, the layout actually was fairly similar, but it was built of stone blocks and attached to the underground tunnels of a pyramid out in the desert." There was a pause and then she asked, "You do know what a desert is, don't you?"

"A desert is an area of very dry land that receives little or no rainfall over a year. They may be sandy or rocky." Shadow's mouth seemed to reel out the facts of its own accord, his eyes widening involuntarily as he heard an answer his brain didn't seem to know.

Rouge had stopped and turned as he answered; now she gave him a long, thoughtful look. "Hmmm," was her only comment. Then she turned back and resumed walking.

Shadow shook his head slightly as he followed her. _How did I know that? How did I know that without knowing I knew that? Why am I so sure I ought to know more than I do? And if I ought, why don't I?_ He was jolted out of his thoughts by the appearance of another robot patrol. Again, the bat and the E-series robot made short work of the Egg pawns. Shadow didn't join in, but felt like his wits were starting to wake up a bit.

Shortly after dispatching the patrol, the trio emerged through a ceiling hatch onto a sunny beach. Shadow looked around; still nothing that seemed familiar. But it was pretty._ Why is that important? ...Someone...someone I knew... would like this. _Then something clicked - _those islands all look like FISH!_

"The Piscine Islands," announced Rouge. "An ancient sea-going civilization lived here once; they left some splendid buildings and the whole thing is an archeological preserve of sorts - or at least it was until Eggman took it over. I've found some very interesting things hidden around here in the past."

_Piscine, meaning fish_. That part made sense, at least. "Which one is Whale Island?"

"You can't actually see it from here," she answered. She set off at a jog along the beach. "This way, guys. You two ready?"

"Warning," said Omega. "Immediate destruction if distracted."

"Hmmph. Hope you can keep up with me," muttered Shadow, still a bit annoyed with the robot for trying to shoot him earlier. The sunlight did seem to be clearing the last of the fog from his brain - though he still could remember nothing prior to opening his eyes in the underground room - and he suddenly had a strong urge to_ run_. His shoes turned out to possess some sort of hovering property that gave him even more speed than the bat and the robot possessed, so he modified his pace to match theirs.

It was an interesting trip. Ruins made of decorated white marble, some of which moved as they approached, were scattered around the islands. Shadow wasn't sure if the moving stones was due to ancient engineering or more recent modification. Access between the islands was improved by the decidedly modern additions of ramps that launched one a distance and aerial boost rings that Rouge identified as "dash rings". Passing through a dash ring propelled one in the direction the ring was facing. It was certainly easier and faster than trying to row from island to island.

Shadow found it rather an exhilarating challenge to race along the dunes and cliffs, dodging or destroying robots as they went. There seemed to be several types, with variations, mainly in weapons, within each type. The Eggpawns, for instance, might be armed with several different weapons, some had spears, some guns, some even had shields. Another type looked rather like a small plane; most of these were not armed, but some had guns mounted on their bellies. The plane type often had to be knocked out of the sky before Shadow and Omega could attack them; Rouge picked Shadow up and tossed him at the enemies and he'd instinctively curl into a ball right before he hit them. He had some internal targeting system evidently, that didn't need memory to function. Robots on the ground, of any type, he simply ran at and jump-curled when he got close. He had clearly done this before, often enough to be good at it, so why couldn't he remember?

Omega just whipped out his gun (Shadow was finding it increasing difficult to think of his traveling companion as an 'it') and blasted the opponents to components, often with a comment of "Worthless consumer models". The robot had several different weapons and a hand stored in each arm and was able to switch from one to another at will.

In addition to the robots, they kept encountering strings and clusters of strange 'gold' rings. He wasn't sure what they were actually made of - pure energy, perhaps? They hung suspended about a foot off the ground, but he could easily pick them up. Each one he collected seemed to boost his energy level slightly, and cleared his mind further. Regrettably, they didn't seem to help him remember anything, but he quickly got in the habit of snagging them as often as he could. Rouge and the robot did so as well.

The race continued until they suddenly hit a stretch of open water full of huge turtles. To Shadow's amazement - and Rouge's, apparently - each turtle bore more of the ruins on their backs. An assortment of launch ramps and dash rings provided access from one to another leading across the strait to some buildings on the far side.

"Is that the palace?" he asked Rouge.

She shook her head. "That's part of the complex, but the palace itself is a bit farther on." She looked at the turtles again. "That's just plain weird."

Shadow shrugged. For all he could remember, perhaps all turtles carried stone platforms. "Let's go."

Another period of running, jumping, and fighting - plus a desperate scramble to dodge a trap of enormous rolling stones decorated with bulls' heads and "horns" - brought them at last to the palace. Rouge led the pair around to the side and out onto a sand bar. "Eggman's port is this way," she started to explain.

However, as they stepped out on the sand, a large plane shaped like a bird roared down in front of them. A human with a ridiculously large moustache was at the controls of an open cockpit, and two Eggpawns manned guns on either side. "So, YOU'RE the ones who have been playing games with my army!" cried the human. Shadow didn't find the man the least bit familiar, but his companions certainly seemed to.

"Primary target detected," droned Omega. "Destroy Eggman!" And the hawk-like plane dove in with its guns blasting away, then retreated up the beach above an ancient causeway. The trio pursued until it came to rest on another sandbar.

Shadow homed on the engines until they broke, while Omega pounded the plane's fuselage into a welter of dents. Rouge put a stop to the robots manning the guns. At the last moment, the cockpit ejected and flew away, with the human screaming threats as he fled.

Rouge shook her head and sighed. "That's Eggman. He always escapes, and he never gives up. He'll be back.

"Come on guys, my plane's over this way."


	3. City of the Future

2. City of the Future

"Future City, here we are," trilled Rouge, as the jet circled in for a landing. It wasn't a very large plane, having been built to carry only two or three dokan, and Omega cramped it considerably.

Shadow was sitting next to Rouge trying to figure out if he believed the story she had told him on the way here. A giant lizard, magical gems, and a gun big enough to destroy a planet? How could ANYONE forget that? How could anyone _believe_ that? Surely she must be making it up. But she had, at least, explained why they were traveling to Future City.

"Dr. Eggman has been acting more strangely than usual recently - and that's saying something," the bat had said. "We've had reports that he's kidnaping chao; that he's opened a casino park; that he's reactivated an old base out in Rail Canyon. And here, he's stealing or holding hostage the energy fluid that the city relies on for power. My boss wants to know what he's up to." Shadow was still pondering this as they disembarked on the top of a high-rise.

"So, that Eggman is behind all of this," stated Shadow. He wasn't sure he understood all the reasons - what _was _a chao, anyway? - but he thought he'd gotten the basic point.

Rouge nodded, adding, "Whatever it takes, he's mine. Any objections?"

"Negative," responded Omega, as the three left the jet on the roof and started running down an access ramp built along the outside of one wall. The robot didn't seem to care who defeated Eggman as long as it was done.

Shadow found himself catapulted at the base of the ramp onto a path made of some sort of translucent force. He slid to a halt to look more closely - and discovered that he couldn't stop! The path itself was carrying him forward.

Rouge touched his arm as she moved past him. "Don't worry about it Shadow. It's an automatic path, like an escalator. You can't fall through it; just watch out for the edges."

Shadow watched her run on ahead, using the path's acceleration to boost her own speed. The robot kept pace, still clanking slightly but no longer clumping on the path as he had on a solid surface. Shadow surreptitiously crouched to test the 'pavement' with his gloved fingers. It had a very slight give to it, but seemed sturdy enough. He kicked on his hover shoes and darted after the other two, hoping neither had caught his momentary doubt.

They exited the path at the top of another building, and Rouge indicated a ramp descending along the side of this building as well. "Is this the energy plant?" asked Shadow.

Rouge nodded again and explained, "That red liquid is being traded at high prices." She indicated large, transparent pipes visible in several places. "It's a variation of the stuff Professor Gerald developed to power the ARK and it's extremely valuable. As I said, Eggman has his robots sealing it off somehow."

"Eggman must have plans to control the energy," announced Omega. As if to demonstrate, the trio rounded a corner and came face to face with several robots that had shut down one of the blue paths. Once the robots were demolished, the electronic blocking ceased and Shadow watched the red fluid fill the frames and re-engender the path. He snagged another line of the gold rings as they started up it.

Shadow found himself distracted as they continued by the streams of vehicles flying along routes that were fifty and a hundred feet above the ground-bound cars on the streets below. And all these huge buildings; shouldn't _something_ be familiar to him? An exclamation from Rouge brought his attention back to the front.

There was a giant turtle there. Curious, Shadow skated forward, ignoring Rouge's protest. It was made of green metal plates and - oops! - was elevating a gun out of the center of its carapace. Some buried instinct sent Shadow swooping forward and around at high speed, forming a localized tornado, that actually sucked the massive beast up into the air and dropped it upside down. _Why do I have the urge to yell 'Sonic Wind'?_ he wondered. _Well, I wanted something vaguely familiar, and you can't get much more vague than that. _ Rouge planted a steel-toed kick on the plastron and the thing deactivated. And off they went along another mid-air path.

After another few rooftops - and an assortment of Eggman robots - they arrived at a sort of lobby. Three of the plane-bots were hovering over some sort of devices on the floor, zapping crackling beams of electricity between the devices and themselves.

"Danger," warned Omega, "Electrical charges can damage organic flesh and robotic functioning."

"No problem," said Shadow smoothly, looking towards Rouge. Catching his meaning she leaped into the air, gained a bit of height, then swooped down to pick him up and fling him at the closest of the planes. He knocked it out of the air, then realized he had enough energy and control to hit the second as well. She picked him up again and tossed him at the third while Omega smashed the two fallen ones. Free from the electric beams, the restraining devices clicked and fell over as steps rose out of the floor, providing access to the upper level of the room. Rouge paused a moment to consult a small electronic mapping device and Shadow looked out one of the lobby's floor-to-ceiling windows at the plants on the other side. The lobby appeared to face onto a small garden area, like she'd loved. Shadow frowned, his brows pulling together. _Like who loved? Someone I knew loved gardens. No, flowers. Why flowers and not gardens? _He blinked suddenly and looked up as someone called his name.

Rouge and Omega were standing on the second floor looking down at him. "Are you coming, Shadow?" she asked. Shadow hmmphed and leapt up the steps to join them.

After weaving their way through a maze of corridors and a few more trips to the rooftops, the trio came to an abrupt halt on narrow balcony in an enormous cylindrical chamber. The door they'd entered through slammed closed behind them. Too late they realized that although it appeared to be the only exit, there was had no handle on the inside. Below them, the energy fluid seethed and rippled. Shadow watched it a moment, then asked, "Is it just me, or is the level rising?"

Rouge turned from trying to pry the door open and rushed to stand next to him. Snarling something under her breath, the white bat looked around and then up. Shadow, following her gaze, saw that there was another balcony, higher up, on the opposite wall. She gave the robot a thoughtful glance then said, "Shadow, if I toss you, can you land on that ledge?"

"Yes," the black hedgehog replied immediately._ My mind may not be worth much at the moment, but my physical skills are superb_, he thought with neither false modesty nor exaggeration. It was simply the truth. He caught the bat's hands and let her fling him up towards the ledge on the wall opposite, landing neatly on his feet. _Now what? _He looked up again, and smiled grimly. _Should have looked up to start with. Looks like a veritable ladder of these ledges and... yes, there is an exit at the top. Aha!_ The last thought followed his recognition of a line of gold rings bridging the gap from the ledge he was on to the next higher level. The instant he spotted the linear pattern, he knew what to do with it. As Rouge all but crash-landed with the robot, Shadow took each by a hand and...pulled... along the line of rings. He couldn't explain what he was doing, he just _knew _- but it worked. The three of them zipped along the line to drop onto the next ledge. Glancing back, Shadow realized that the entry ledge was now under the energy fluid completely, and that fluid was rising much faster now. He ran on along the ledge to the next one, where Rouge again had to air-lift the robot, but Shadow was able to jump. He only hoped Rouge would be able to make it to the exit; fortunately, now that he knew what he was looking for he'd marked several more ring trails where he could shift Omega and Rouge both. Even so, it was clear the robot was too heavy for the bat to carry very long. Midway up the tank, with the fluid close behind, he found himself faced with a set of enemies guarding an electrical field that barred exit from the storage chamber. Rouge, struggling with Omega, was still approaching the barricaded balcony. A quick flurry of homing attacks cleared the way, and Shadow gave the bat a brief rest by pulling her and the robot along yet another line of rings. The trio continued their hurried progress from ledge to ledge and the fluid continued its inexorable rise behind them. At last Shadow made it to the rooftop exit, turning to help an exhausted Rouge haul the robot out after them.

"Are you all right?" he asked the bat as she collapsed on the roof.

Rouge flopped onto her back, panting. "Yeah." She flung one arm across her face to shield her eyes from the sun. "This just isn't the sort of work I usually do. And that robot is HEAVY!"

"This unit weighs 1230.512 kilograms," stated Omega. "Due to the exceptionally strong shielding required for the designated tasks, the weight could not be less if I was to function at full capacity."

Rouge was very still for a moment, then turned her head to peer at the robot from under her arm. "Now I feel even _more_ tired," she said dryly. "I'm not designed for heavy lifting."

"That's obvious," said Shadow. Rouge shot him a sharp look. "Although," he continued, "you must be a lot stronger than you look; I'm not sure I could have hauled him up all that way."

Rouge dropped her arm and sat up, still studying the black and red hedgehog. "Thank you," she said finally. She dragged herself back onto her feet. "C'mon, I've got rooms at a hotel near here. We can rest there until night."

Shadow frowned. "What are we doing tonight?"

Rouge suppressed a couple of answers she might have tossed off at another male. For some reason, flirting with Shadow felt vaguely...unsettling. Instead she gave him the straight answer. "Eggman - pardon me, _Dr. Robotnik_ - owns a casino-themed, indoor park in the suburbs. It doesn't open until sundown in the slow season, and there likely won't be many people there tonight anyway, since it's Monday. I need to try to get more information about what he's up to for my boss. His robots are all over this plant, but there's no sign of the egghead himself, which is strange." She had been steering her two compatriots back in the direction of the blue paths while she was speaking. She'd actually parked her plane on the roof of the hotel she'd made reservations at, so all they had to do was get back there..

"I– what's that?" She frowned as she noted movement to the side. She was _way_ too tired to deal with any more robots at the moment. She moved in that direction and stopped as she saw three figures on a roof just below hers. "Man! Who are those creeps over there?" she exclaimed in irritation.

The middle-sized of the three, a purple chameleon, turned and looked up. The crocodile next to him also turned, asking, "What's up, Espio?"

The chameleon stepped forward a pace and sketched a bow in Rouge's direction. "And you are...?" he asked. He moved with the grace and control of a trained dancer - or fighter.

Rouge was in no mood for courtesy, however. "Just what do you think you're doing here?" she demanded. She felt Shadow tensing for action as he moved up beside her. Omega flanked her on the other side, his guns replacing both hands.

Below them the chameleon frowned in mild displeasure. The crocodile, oblivious to his partner's annoyance, demanded loudly and of no one in particular "Who's this broad?"

Espio tilted his head slightly. "Our client's adversary, perhaps?"

The smallest member of the group - a bee of all things - bobbed up and down in the air excitedly. "You mean the BAD guys?" He sounded about six years old

Rouge had had enough. She was exhausted and sore after airlifting that blasted robot, and responded with uncharacteristic aggression. "You guys don't fool me! I _know_ what you're after! Better stay outta my way!" With that she launched herself bodily at the chameleon, trusting Shadow and Omega to handle the larger reptile. As she'd expected, Espio knew how to fight. However he wasn't expecting her to rush him bodily off the edge of the roof and by the time he realized her intentions it was too late. The crocodile and the bee dashed for the stairs bellowing (or squealing) in alarm and dismay. Rouge wasn't concerned. She was fully aware that chameleons had the ability to stick to walls; Espio wouldn't fall very far at all, but it would scatter the group long enough for hers to reach their destination. She was about ready to kill for a bed.


	4. Dreams and Dice

3. Dreams and Dice

_Shadow was pulling the human girl on as fast as she could go, hearing nothing over their own breathing and the pounding of their feet on the floor and his heart in his ears when - "Stop!" a voice rang out behind them._

_Shadow glanced back at the girl panting desperately behind him, looked beyond her to see a quartet of soldiers in the doorway. Then, the girl stumbled. Her hand pulled free of Shadow's grip. He skidded to a stop and looked back again to see her hesitate, looking back, then start towards him again; the lead soldier raised his gun... and fired._

_They were running again, the hand he grasped now slick with blood. He dragged her after him, ducking into the lab, spinning back to hit the door's lock pad as she ran for the controls to the capsule. _

"_Shadow, get in!" she ordered, "I'll just set it for launch..." _

"_Open this door!" came from the hall, followed by a gunshot, a second shot - and the door flew open. The soldier stood in the doorway, gun raised. "Miss, get away from that panel! NOW!"_

_Shadow couldn't move. The capsule slammed shut and Shadow, suddenly trapped , pounded his fists futilely against the clear walls as the girl collapsed in front of him. Then suddenly he was back in the hall running again, but this time the lab contained no capsule, only a maze of mirrors, each mirror reflecting either a bleeding blonde girl or a gun raising slowly to point at her. Shadow cried out desperately; they were going to kill her! He needed to get the girl to the capsule so they could escape! And now they were running again together, with a bald human dominating the sky overhead, howling with fury behind a massive moustache, and here came the soldiers again– _

"Shadow! Wake up!"

The black and red hedgehog shot into a sitting position so fast he nearly knocked heads with Rouge. He stared blindly ahead, still seeing his dream. "They're going to kill her!" he shouted, trying to scramble to his feet. Tangled in a blanket, he fell off the couch and hit the floor with a thud. Still struggling to get up, he repeated, "They're going to kill her! I have to save her, now!!"

"Shadow! Wake **up**!" A hand grabbed his shoulder, steadying him upright as another disentangled the blanket. Rouge pushed him backwards a step and he sat down abruptly as the backs of his knees hit the couch. The bat crouched in front of him.

"You can't save her Shadow," she said sadly. "I'm sorry," - and she sounded genuinely sorry - "you tried to save her, you did everything you could...but she's dead."

"I have to save her," he said again feebly, like a child who hoped that denying the truth would make it change. Then, "Who was she?"

Rouge flinched slightly at the question, then said simply, "Her name was Maria." After a moment's hesitation she added, "Your sister."

Shadow didn't say anything. As Rouge had said the name, he remembered it, and as she qualified it, he remembered that too. It didn't matter that he was a hedgehog and she was human, he _knew_ that Maria was his sister and he had been responsible for her - and he also remembered something else. "I failed her," he whispered.

"No," said Rouge. "You did more than anyone else could have done. The troops were there that day to see everyone who knew anything about Project: Shadow died. You and the Biolizard, remember? Like I explained earlier? Even if you'd gotten Maria out in the pod, they would have tracked you down."

Shadow looked at her silently. It was a long speech for the bat, and unusually sincere_. I must have known her before, if I know that. _He asked finally, "Did I know you then, when all that happened?"

Rouge smirked slightly. "Well, you've never really _known _me," she said with a sort of sidelong glance. Seeing his blank look she sighed in annoyance and said, "No, you didn't know me until well after that. We met during the ARK crisis - the second ARK crisis, I suppose, since you and Maria were victims of the first one.

"Look, go...comb your quills or whatever and let me get dressed; then we can head on out to Casino Park and see if we can get anymore info about what Eggman's up to. If nothing else, he can tell us how you ended up in stasis in his vault, when the world thought you were dead." Rouge's suddenly brisk tone stirred the hedgehog into action, and she stood up and watched him walk across to the suite's bathroom. She looked over towards the glowing red gaze of the robot, standing stolidly in the corner of the room and said crossly, "You could have waked him up, you know."

"Organic units require sleep for refreshment of their brains and bodies. This is one reason I am superior. This unit requires no sleep."

"Yeah, well, thrashing around like that is a sign of an 'organic unit' having a nightmare, and those do _not _refresh the mind or body. Wake him up, next time." The bat stalked off to the bedroom - which she had claimed for herself, of course - irritated at the world in general. Shadow, like Omega, was a useful tool and nothing else, just like every other person on the planet. Pity about his memory loss, but perhaps that would make him easier to 'guide'.

Rouge knew what she wanted and how to get it - which was how she'd gotten where she was, in fact. Eighteen-year-old girls weren't usually high-level spies, but then fifteen-year-olds didn't usually successfully break in to the White House and nearly escape with priceless national treasures. She'd have gotten away with it too, if the President hadn't happened to wake up and head for the restroom at the wrong time. Although, she'd turned that to her advantage as well, charming him enough that instead of having her arrested he'd hired her as a special agent. She got well paid for interesting and challenging assignments, plus the chance to locate and acquire new treasures during her travels.

The real problem with Shadow, she told herself, was that although he was a male, and thus should be simplicity itself to manipulate, he'd had an unusual upbringing that meant he totally missed most of her cues and teases. Thus the maneuvers that usually gave her complete control - either through lustful carelessness or embarrassed confusion - merely puzzled the dark hedgehog, if he noticed them at all. Not that she'd ever followed through with any of her dropped hints or flirtations, of course; she was far too canny for that. Better to leave them drooling as you left, then you could often come back with the flimsiest excuse and befuddle them again. Wearing the tight pants and bustier which displayed her figure to best advantage, she tossed her nightgown - which Shadow hadn't even noticed, of course - towards her suitcase as she checked her makeup in the mirror. She touched up her lipstick and returned to the sitting room.

Shadow was scowling at his reflection in the mirror when the bat emerged from her room. He didn't like being in the dark about so many things, but he also hated having to show his ignorance by asking questions. It wasn't his fault he had amnesia, of course, but it was a weakness and weaknesses could be exploited. The question was whether having amnesia secretly was a greater or lesser weakness than being known to have it.

_Hmmph. Rouge already knows, and so does Omega. And since they know, better to ask questions now so I don't have to reveal it to people who don't know._ He followed the bat out the door with the robot bringing up the rear this time. She led the group downstairs and onto a bus. Once they were seated, Shadow asked, "Should I have known those guys we met outside the power plant?"

"Hmm? Oh, them," said Rouge. "I don't think so. They call themselves the "Chaotix Detective Agency" and I've run into them on a few occasions, but I doubt you ever met them. Espio - that's the chameleon - is probably the brightest of the bunch, but for some reason when that crocodile wanted to partner with him he let Vector dub himself the boss. Charmy, who is literally an annoying little insect, is a sort of mascot or something. They used to be pals with Knuckles, the echidna that lives up on Angel Island and guards the Master Emerald." Shadow remembered her mentioning Knuckles earlier when she was filling him in on the Biolizard battle and his own subsequent 'death'. "Back then though, it was just Espio who was a detective.

"Ah, here we are." She tugged a cord over the window and the bus stopped in front of a large gatehouse that bore gaudy neon decorations resembling card suits and dice. The massive stone building behind it stretched for at least a block in each direction and seemed to be nearly as tall as it was wide. The three disembarked, and the bus continued on. "Now, where did I put..." her voice trailed off as she rummaged in her hip pouch. "...Ah! Here we go! Wait here, guys."

She stepped forward to the window and waved a black square with something silver on it. Discussion ensued. The human on the other side of the window made a phone call. Rouge spoke into the phone briefly, then the human listened to it for a long time. Finally Rouge looked back and waved Shadow and Omega forward towards the turnstiles. The rather cowed-looking young man standing at the ticket window watched them go in.

"I wonder..." said Rouge softly. Then she shrugged. "Never mind, those guys were definitely up to no good."

"Enemies detected 200 meters ahead," interrupted Omega. "Initiating battle mode!" The robot picked up speed and Shadow followed.

Rouge shrugged and jogged after them. "Hey guys, wait for me!"

Shadow stopped when they came in sight of the enemy, not sure he believed what he was seeing. It was an Egg pawn, but done up in silver with a little metal bow tie below its chinless head. Rouge stopped beside him with an incredulous sound, but Omega in true robotic style marched forward and blasted the 'enemy' to bits regardless of its decorations.

Shadow looked at Rouge. "Are they _all_ going to look like that?" He was fighting an impulse to laugh; he was fully aware that these Egg pawns were as potentially dangerous as the others he'd seen, but the thing was so _silly_ looking.

Rouge looked back and shrugged. "Eggman - _Doctor Robotnik _- has the whole place staffed with robots, I think. Well, except for the guy out front selling tickets. There won't be any other guests tonight, by the way - my clearance is high enough I could order the place shut down, and my boss verified it over the phone.

"But, probably most of the 'bots will look like that. Or similar. It _is_ a themed area after all."

He frowned as they moved on after Omega. "I thought you said earlier that Doctor Eggman and Doctor Robotnik were the same person..." he started.

"So why do I keep correcting myself?" The bat made a face. "I work for the government. And OFFICIALLY no one has proved that Doctor Eggman, who wants to take over the world, is the same person as Doctor Ivo Robotnik, who heads up Robotnik Industries and owns this casino among other things. Everyone knows they're one and the same, but until it's legally proven, I'm supposed to keep them separate. Eggman's the villain, Robotnik is the robot tycoon. And so it goes."

"Oh." Shadow didn't see how everyone could know something without it being official. It reminded him of...something. His mind scrabbled after the errant memory, but it was already gone. Growling to himself in irritation, he increased speed, darting past Omega as the robot passed between a pair of enormous dice tumbling in mid-air. Shadow leaped up a set of carpeted stairs to find a sort of vertical wind tunnel that lifted him several stories higher in the building. At the top, a balcony should have given an overview of the enormous enclosure, but instead Shadow found himself stepping out onto a ledge high above a rather unusual city.


	5. Gambler's Choice

4. Gambler's Choice

Shadow stood on the ledge and stared out over a city crowned with neon; at buildings that were capped with poker chips, or card suits, or Bingo cards. Lit with hundreds of windows as well as their neon adornments, the skyscrapers stretched to the horizon, far past where the walls of the building he was in _had_ to be; and the sky above was as dark as his fur, but sprinkled with stars and an ovoid moon - no sign of a ceiling. Looking down, he saw the buildings dropping tens of stories to streets lit up only by the lights of vehicles rolling along them. _That can't be right! I know we came into a building... _Even as he rejected the sight, the 'streets' thinned and fuzzed slightly, then resolved themselves into a floor - maybe 5 stories down, partly black tile gridded by small light strings, partly carpeted in rich red or green. _It's a hologram_, he realized. _Not just the streets_ - he could still see them if he tried, or the floor if he wanted to - _but the city around us and the sky overhead._ He frowned slightly and concentrated on the real floor below.

The main floor was laid out as a series of game boards. Shadow identified pinball and Bingo areas, a giant roulette wheel, something that looked like a chess or checker board, and an area marked out with giant playing cards and poker chips. Some appeared to be 'rides' and some merely contained playing tables, presumably for the games shown by the decorations. There were several other areas that evidently represented games he didn't know, and a central structure reaching to the ceiling that was well-decorated but had no visible entrance. Eating and drinking areas were interspersed among the game plots, as were potted palms, both real and neon. Moving through or just standing around were massive numbers of Egg pawns. Many were like the one they had met at the entrance, silver and bow-tied; these seemed to be mainly concentrated at the food service or gaming tables. The rest - the rest were decked out in pink or green or orange gloss with 'crests' of card suits on their heads, or - Shadow squinted slightly - rabbit ears?

"That big structure in the middle should contain the offices and such," commented Rouge. That's where we'll find information on Robotnik's plans, and the man himself if he's here. But I doubt we'll be that lucky." She looked left and right at the ends of the balcony. "What do you think guys, pinball or Bingo?"

Following her gaze, Shadow noticed for the first time the sloped platforms at either end of the balcony. Apparently the only way down to the main floor was to slide down one of the highly decorated boards, but as to which was better, Shadow didn't have a clue. Omega didn't answer either. After a moment the bat ran and jumped onto the giant pinball table to the left, sliding down the tilted surface and trying to dodge bumpers and the flippers as she went. Following her onto the table, Shadow curled into his usual ball and hit a few of the obstacles to see what would happen; he recognized the game, but he wasn't sure what 'pinball' actually _was_ - if he'd ever known, it was lost with the rest of his memories. The round objects _binged _or lit up when he hit them, and the waving flippers bounced him back up the table to a small, flat area where three wheels with pictures on them spun rapidly. After a moment he experimentally pushed a button beneath one wheel and it stopped with a picture of a fox on it. He pushed the next button and got another fox. The third button got a black bar that said "Jackpot" across it. There was a wild ringing and then the floor dropped beneath him and tumbled him onto the table again. This time he dodged the flippers and joined Rouge and Omega on the green carpet of the main floor. As he stood up, there was another ringing sound beside him and as he reflexively jumped away, a stream of gold rings and coins spilled into a basket.

"Ooh, well done, Shadow," teased Rouge. "You hit the jackpot, I think." She scooped the rings and coins up and tucked them...somewhere. At any rate, when she turned back to the hedgehog and robot, Shadow's winnings were nowhere to be seen. "I'll just hold this for you until we get out, shall I? Now, let's get into the offices."

Getting in proved easier said than done. The team had to remove a number of the gaudy theme-bots along the way, and then were approached by some strange, floating discs, each with a pair of dangling arms. Apparently these were the peace-enforcers.

"Warning!" announced Omega. "Jellyfish robots emit a trapping field that places a captive in stasis and carry them off. Do not let them get overhead."

Shadow acknowledged the warning by getting over the jellyfishes' heads and bopping them into scrap. Rouge raised an eyebrow at him as he landed. "I do like to see a man enjoying his work," she said. Again he had the impression that she didn't mean what she said, or maybe she didn't mean only what she said, or - something. He shook his head and pointed ahead.

"Look, that plane-bot there must be guarding the door," he stated, deciding to ignore the bat's comment. "Shall we go see?"

The plane-bot in question _was_ guarding a door, but the spotlight it carried apparently detected things as well as emitting light. When the light beam crossed over Rouge, an alarm sounded and a set of highly decorated but well-armed Egg pawns emerged from the structure. The trio made short work of both the pawns and the plane, then Rouge flew up to trigger the switch that activated the door from the outside. They paced down the arched hall and found another plane-bot guarding another wind-tunnel lift; this time Omega blasted the robot before the searchlight detected them. The lift boosted them up...into a landing area that was also guarded, this time by the silver bow-tie bots. And so it went, down several corridors that were bare-floored and largely devoid of the gaudy decorations of the exterior building.

Then Rouge led her squad around one more corner and they found a wider, pillared hall with scarlet carpet down the middle. "Eggman always was a bit too fond of luxury," she commented as she led the other two up it. At the end of the hall, the carpet continued up a broad flight of steps and split at the landing, narrower halls running along either side of a smaller flight of steps that was barred by a laser fence. The three split up to look for some sort of switch or key to turn off the fence. Shadow found it by accident; ducking around a pillar to see behind it, he stumbled on the edge of the carpet where it had curled a bit - and his hand, grabbing the pillar to prevent a fall, felt an odd bump on the polished stone. The button itself was marble, and difficult to see, but when he depressed it, the red beams across the staircase vanished. When he pressed it again the fence reappeared. He turned it off again and called to Rouge and Omega. The three climbed the steps into a small room that veritably glittered.

"Ooooh! Jewels!" gushed Rouge, darting to a pile of small multicolored stones that were heaped on a small tray on a desk. Along the walls were stacks of coins, and a few heaps of bags that held money as well, and in addition, most of the floor was covered with the golden rings. There was clearly a lot of wealth here. "I thought so."

"Is this all from here?" asked Shadow. "People pay gems to get in?" He didn't think that sounded right, but where else had they all come from?

"Nah," answered Rouge, looking up a moment. For a startled moment Shadow thought she'd stuck a gem in her eye, then he realized it was a sort of tiny half-binocular. She returned her attention to the jewels, scrutinizing each one and sorting them into two piles. "Some of these he uses in his robots - either the main works or the lasers on some of the guns. Some were probably bought because they're more easily stored and carried than big piles of money, and you don't have to worry about an exchange rate." Dropping the last gem into the larger pile, she scooped up the smaller heap and made it disappear, then dropped the binocular-thing into her hand. Catching Shadow's perplexed look, she explained, "It's a jeweler's loupe - a special sort of magnifying glass for looking at gems and jewelry. _Very_ useful tool for a treasure hunter." She winked at him, then stood up. "Those are just industrial type, not worth much. Let's grab the rings and go. Leave the coins, they're too heavy."

Obediently, Shadow collected the rings, kicking on his hover shoes and jetting in a tight spiral. _Chinginginginging_. With a smirk of his own he braked in front of Rouge just under a second after he'd started, and presented her with an arm now braceleted with thirty-odd golden rings. Omega found a trap-door sort of exit and knocked it open and the three exited, the one-way panel dropping shut behind them. The three continued their exploration of the building.

"Why were there so many coins? Wouldn't paper money be easier to store and carry?" Shadow asked Rouge.

"Yes but slot machines typically take and pay out coins," the bat answered. "For the other games, the ones that use chips, you can buy chips with paper bills, but a lot of people use credit cards for those anyway, and those winnings are given out on debit cards, or checks if they're large enough."

"Checks?" Shadow frowned as the image of a school paper floated out of the depths of his mind. _"The checks are for the answers I got right, and the one with the 'x' mark I got wrong," Maria's voice said._ He couldn't remember what the test had been on, but he remembered that he'd not been long awake when Maria explained her schoolwork to him. _And now I'm awake again. Was everything so blank the first time?_

"A different type of paper money," said Rouge, pausing to ponder a cross corridor. Finally she turned left. "Unlike bills, checks are made payable in a varying amounts and the person making them out has to have a bank account with that much money in it . Bills are made by the government and come in set dollar amounts. Ah, here we are!"

Rouge fiddled a moment with a doorknob and then pushed the door open. Shadow followed her into a messy office, leaving Omega outside to stand watch. Rouge frowned at the heaps of paper covering desk, file cabinets, shelves and floor. "I don't suppose you can do one of those quick spins and pull out the papers I need."

"I doubt it." The black and red hedgehog pulled a paper off the nearest stack. It appeared to be a memo about a new line of hoverboards. "What exactly are you looking for?"

"Never mind," the bat sighed. Then she brightened a bit. "Could you at least sort some of this stuff by topic? That'll make it easier for me to locate the info I need."

Shadow shrugged and began pulling papers down and trying to arrange them by subject. As it turned out, they were in luck, and Rouge found - whatever - in less than 15 minutes. None of the papers Shadow looked at gave any clue as to why he'd ended up in a sealed-off section of one of Eggman's bases; all the papers seemed hopelessly mundane. Shadow did do one of his 'quick spins' before they left, setting off a small tornado of paper; whoever came in next would be hard pressed to discover what the bat had taken. Rouge led them next to an executive exit, and the three stepped out onto a concrete landing pad.

"Oho!" cried a voice overhead.

The trio looked up, and Rouge exclaimed, "Doctor Eggman?" The small hovercraft circling above them looked scarcely large enough to hold the rotund human.

Shadow stepped forward. "Doctor..." He hesitated, then shook himself mentally; he _had _to know! "Tell me doctor, what was I doing asleep on that base? And what about my memory?

The human stared at him in puzzlement. "Your memory? What memory? You have no past to remember!" he huffed through his moustache. Shadow felt a chill, and swallowed hard. That was certainly not an answer he had anticipated. But how could he have no past? Rouge had met him before...

Twiddling one side of his overgrown facial adornment, Eggman continued, "Well, I'll see you again; I believe our time is up. Get them!" Robots began to materialize in droves around them as the hovercraft retreated to a safer distance.

"Wait, Doctor!" cried Shadow in dismay.

"It's useless, Shadow," Rouge interrupted him sharply. "We have to fight him."

Omega apparently agreed. "Numerous targets detected inside perimeter. Prepare to intercept and attack!" he announced.

Shadow snarled in frustration and launched himself at the closest Egg pawn as Rouge and Omega struck at the robots nearest their own positions. The next few minutes were a blur as a seeming endless stream of robots advanced in waves and were beaten back. All the ones Shadow had seen so far - Egg pawns with various weapons; plane-bots with guns, zappers, bombs, and searchlights; green and gold turtles; jellyfish - all of these advanced, were destroyed and were replaced by new attackers. Doctor Eggman circled the impromptu arena, calling threats and cheering on his robots.

Finally, Shadow pummeled one more robot into scrap, noted there were no more immediate attackers, and called up to the human, "Doctor! Stop this senseless fight!" He needed to get the man to explain! He had no past?

Rouge put on a smug smile and called, "You've underestimated us, haven't you, Doctor?"

Omega droned, "Activation test unsuccessful...minimal resistance detected."

Instead of a reply from the hovering human, another set of gold-plated robots appeared... and was promptly trounced.

"Hmmph," snorted Eggman finally, "this is only the beginning." A last set of robots made their move and met the same fate as their predecessors. Eggman shook his head slightly and muttered to himself, then focused his attention again on the intruders.

"Don't get to excited, boys," the man called down as he turned his machine to leave. "Those were the _easy _ones!" The craft disappeared into the night. Freed of the immediate need to defend himself, and targets to vent his frustration on, Shadow found his brain circling again around the Doctor's remarks.


	6. The Desert Base

5. The Desert Base

The dark hedgehog barely noticed as Rouge laid a hand on his shoulder and steered him to the elevator at the edge of the platform. He was vaguely aware of her watching his face, as they sat on the bus back to the hotel, but his mind was spinning with the Doctor's words. _'Your memory? What memory? You have no past to remember!'_

_What did he mean? How can I have no past? I must have been somewhere before I was in that pod. Rouge says she knew me before, that she was on the ARK when I fought the Biolizard..._

_Which I don't remember. After gathering a set of gems I don't remember and allying at the last minute with opponents I don't remember to fulfill a promise I don't remember. Perhaps the Doctor is correct, and I don't HAVE anything to remember. Rouge could be lying to serve her own ends. She's made no secret of the fact that she'll do what she needs to to achieve her goals._

_But I __**do**__ remember some things. Maria. The soldiers._ **That** he remembered all too well. Distantly he felt the pressure against his shoulder increase as he shuddered involuntarily. _The dream that isn't only a dream... I__** remember**__ running down the corridor, pulling Maria after me. I remember the __**terror**__, not knowing what was going to happen but that it was going to be horrible. And if I have no past...how can that be? People don't just pop into existence fully formed. _

A tug on his arm pulled him to his feet, and he stumbled down the aisle after Omega to exit the bus. He permitted himself to be steered into the hotel, but didn't really notice his surroundings until Rouge opened the suite door and he moved in to drop onto the couch. The bat perched herself next to him, looking uncharacteristically nervous. _And how could I know that? To know what's characteristic I __**must**__ have known her before. _He looked at his fists, clenched on his knees, then rubbed his face hard. _No. The doctor must have been lying. I don't know why he would lie, but I __**will**__ find out the truth. _

Having reached a decision, he took a long breath and turned to face Rouge. "So. Where do we go from here?"

Looking very relieved at this change of attitude, the bat girl replied, "It looks like Doctor Robotnik has been shipping a lot of supplies out through badlands the to the Frog Forest. Coincidently, Doctor _Eggman _is known to have a base in each place, and we know that the one in the badlands has been showing more activity lately-"

"Frog Forest?" Shadow interrupted.

"Ye-es," Rouge said slowly, giving him a sly glance. "It's home to some rather... large... frogs, thus the name. And it's largely unexplored, though there are rumors of huge turtles and things in the swampier areas. And mushrooms even dinosaurs couldn't have knocked over.

"Anyway, Eggman has a base near the far edge of the forest in a supposedly haunted castle - haunted by Egg pawns, no doubt - so I thought we'd follow the train route through the badlands ourselves, check out that base on the way, and then work our way through the forest to the castle if we have to."

Shadow smirked at the mental image of an Egg pawn draped in a sheet with two eye holes, and a plane bot similarly caparisoned. He nodded in acceptance of the plan. "Do we leave now?"

Rouge raised her eyebrows at him. "Eager, aren't you? No, us poor mortals need some sleep, especially if I'm going back to another nasty, glary place like the badlands. This human obsession with sunlight is positively unnatural." She stood up and tossed the blanket at him. "Goodnight, Shadow. Enjoy the couch."

"_We_ poor mortals," Shadow called after her, without really knowing why. He shook out the blanket and made himself comfortable against the overstuffed armrest. His last sight was the dull red glow of Omega's eyes before he woke up with the sun full in his face.

Ninety minutes later he wondered how he could have thought the sun was full anything in the city. Rouge hadn't been kidding about the glare. A short-but-swift trip in her little jet had brought the trio to the edge of the badlands, and now they stood outside the plane near the edge of a mesa. Rouge was indicating a set of train tracks entering the canyon below and giving last-minute instructions. As Shadow squinted down he felt the heat rising past him; in fact, he could actually _see _the heat, rippling and faintly reddish. Rouge had put on a pair of very dark glasses and a wide-brimmed hat, neither of which went very well with her other clothing. Her glare had warned Shadow against commenting - not that he'd been going to - but he noticed that her ears, poking through holes in the hat brim, were getting pinker by the minute.

"Let's go, then," concluded Rouge, and jumped off the edge. Shadow felt a moment's alarm before he realized she was flying down. He vaulted over the edge himself, leaping nimbly from ledge to rock until he reached the base. Omega merely punched fist after fist into the cliff, creating his own handholds all the way down. Next to the tracks, Rouge was pulling on a pair of rail-riding boots - similar to hover skates or Shadow's own hover shoes, except that they had mild magnetic properties that essentially created a single person monorail ride. Omega converted his mechanical feet into something similar, and Shadow triggered a little used function that activated magnets in his hover shoes - intended for emergency use if the ARK's artificial gravity cut out - and glided along the rail adjacent to Rouge's. There were actually four rails in parallel, as it was a double track., but shortly the rails to the left of Shadow and Rouge peeled off to head a different way, requiring Omega to change rails or lose the group. About the same time they entered the shadow of the mesa, gaining some respite from the sun. Shadow could tolerate enormous levels of heat without suffering debilitation, but that didn't mean he enjoyed the full glare out here, and Rouge was definitely better off out of the sun. The bright red flush her ears had acquired gradually faded, although they remained pinker than usual. Her face under the hat brim was a picture of deep thought, and Shadow had plenty to ponder himself, so they slid down the rails in mutual silence, hearing only the soughing of the faint breeze and the faint ringing of Omega's feet on the rail.

The train tracks began to rise and fall, the wood ties being replaced by metal braces. Occasionally they climbed right over a mesa and slid down into the canyon on the other side. After about ten minutes, Omega suddenly spoke up from his position behind the bat, "Eggman base detected ahead."

Rouge, jolted out of her own thoughts, looked up. "I wonder what the Doctor really meant?" she said, apparently to herself.

Shadow realized that her thoughts had been paralleling his own. "We must capture him first. Let's go!" He increased speed as the rail started a long dive into the deepest canyon yet.

One benefit of traveling on the elevated rails was that he and his companions could get an overview of the surrounding terrain and construction. The layout was easy to see, multiple rails weaving among the canyons and rock formations to connect platforms that held buildings, guards, and switches that altered the layout of the rails. Shadow wasn't at all sure why anyone would want such a spread out and visible 'secret base' but, "It's an incredible engineering feat."

"Amazing," Rouge agreed, as they rounded the curve of yet another mesa and saw a new platform ahead. The small red shapes of Egg pawns could be seen pacing in patrol formation.

Shortly they hit the first guard outpost and confronted a patrol of Egg pawns. Leaving them in pieces, the group picked up another set of rails that led into a field of tall rock pillars. Other rails wove two-by-two around the stone columns, occasionally drawing near before veering off again. The tops of the pillars were crowned by larger, irregular shapes. Shadow looked up, expecting jack o' lanterns for some reason, and gaped in amazement. Some were in fact irregular blobs of stone, smoothed and rounded by wind-blown sand, but the rest... Finally he managed to ask, weakly, "Guns?"

Rouge was also looking up at their surroundings. The rails had risen so they were now gliding at a level about halfway up the stone pillars. "I... I hadn't seen these before," she said finally. "I knew that Eggman had some... 'unusually styled' I think the report said... cannons that he used for transport in this area - none of the rails actually go to the base directly - but these..." her voice trailed off. Finally she concluded, "These are just weird."

Shadow nodded silently. Giant cannons shaped like four six-shooters welded together, one barrel pointing each cardinal direction, definitely qualified as weird in his book. "Wait, transport?" he asked.

"Yes," replied Omega. "Supplies and personnel are loaded into pods for transport to the underground train stations and carried from there to the main base. This is in my data banks, which have information on all Eggman's bases as well as his inferior mechanical creations."

"Hmmm," said Rouge thoughtfully. "Well, if that's the way in..." She switched from the rail they were on to an adjacent one, then hopped across its mate to one of a third pair. Shadow and Omega moved hastily to join her as this set spiraled away from the rest and up one of the nearer columns.

At the top, the rails circled a platform at the base of the huge guns. A set of plane bots and two of the legless jellyfish mechs glided towards them. Omega opened fire with both arms. Rouge took flight, ready to launch herself towards the approaching foes, when a flicker of movement to the side caught her eye. Leaving Shadow and the robot to handle the immediate fight, she glided higher for a better look over a pile of barrels and crates.

_Uh oh. I recognize that shade of blue... and red. _She glanced back to verify that her allies were still occupied, then flitted past the heaped goods and over the fence beyond. Landing neatly, she turned the corner to find not two, but three familiar forms. _Of course. I should have known that fox boy would be here too._ Aloud she purred, "Hello boys, looking for anything in particular?"

Sonic the Hedgehog, the blue-furred hero of the planet, flashed his trademark cocky grin at the unexpected arrival. "Hey Rouge," he said easily. "We're just answering a message. What brings you here?" Knuckles was staring at the bat in surprise - and was he blushing slightly? - while Tails, half the age of the other two (though with twice the brains, by Rouge's estimate) hung back and regarded the pale bat dubiously.

"Nothing much," she answered Sonic, "just after a lead on some rare gems. Although," she added, catching the echidna's gaze and giving a significant glance downwards, "nothing as large as yours." His cheeks instantly went as scarlet as his fur; Rouge laughed inwardly - Knuckles the Echidna was _so_ easy to manipulate. "How is the Master Emerald anyway?" she went on as if she'd never had anything else in mind. Leaving Knuckles spluttering, the white bat returned her attention to Sonic. "There's no one here who could have sent you a message except one of these robots. Perhaps you should try looking elsewhere."

"Perhaps," conceded Sonic, "but I think we'll have a quick look around first. There're plenty of places to hide in an area like this." Knuckles was still watching the conversation, but Tails had turned back to a door in the wall and was trying to discover the entry code.

Rouge growled to herself, but kept her expression as appealing as she knew how. She pulled her hat off and fanned herself with it, her mind racing. She did _not_want them getting in her way - or running into Shadow just yet - but knew that Sonic was bright enough to become suspicious if she pushed too hard._ Keep it light, act like you just want them away from the 'gems' you're searching for. _"Don't be so stubborn, Sonic. This area is full of surprises. And some of them are dangerous." She tried to make the comment sound like concern for the three friends' welfare, rather than a threat.

Unfortunately, just at that moment Tails was successful. Behind the blue hedgehog, the door slid open and Knuckles jumped through it like an fleeing prisoner. The fox cub followed a bit more cautiously, glancing back one last time at Rouge and his friend. Sonic simply scoffed at the bat, stepping backwards towards the door. "We can handle anything we run into. Don't worry, Rouge. We'll be out of your way in a flash.

"Oh... I hope _this_ wasn't the gem you were looking for." He tossed a crimson gem in the air, catching it before Rouge could snatch it - but not before she recognized the Chaos Emerald for what it was. "See ya around, Rouge." In a blur of blue he vanished through the door after his friends. Fuming visibly now that there was no one to see, Rouge launched herself back over the fence.

Shadow was standing by a now-open door on the other side of the platform. "Is something wrong, Rouge?"

"No," she snapped, trying to get her hat tied back under her chin. The sun out here was ungodly. Then she relented slightly; after all, she still needed Shadow's help. "No, I just...got some bad news–"

She was interrupted by Omega's voice from the other side of the door. "Intruders detected. Eliminate all of Eggman's robots."

Rouge pushed past Shadow fast. "Stop it, Omega! Those aren't Eggman's robots!" she snapped. Better to take out her temper on him than Shadow, especially since the robot wouldn't care even if he noticed. "There are actually an amazing number of things that aren't Eggman's robots!" She didn't want Sonic and his compatriots to get in her way, but she didn't particularly want them dead either. Especially since Sonic and Shadow were recognized as the heroes who had saved the planet from the ARK - even if Shadow's recognition was believed to be posthumous. Killing Sonic and his friends would cause way more trouble than just waiting a few minutes. She craned her neck to see past the robot.

There was some sort of low structure in the center of the building with a central steel shaft that rose to the high ceiling. She could see Sonic circling the thing. Tails climbed up on it as the bat watched, then disappeared, apparently dropping into some sort of depression in the upper surface.

"What? Who is–?" Shadow had come up behind her and caught sight of Sonic. Even as he spoke Sonic vaulted onto the structure and disappeared as Tails had. Knuckles' red form climbed over the edge, paused, and vanished in turn. Now the object began to spin slowly, then rose smoothly up the central column, revealing itself to be shaped like an enormous chamber for bullets, matching the six-shooter appearance of the cannons above. "That blue hedgehog..." he was getting an overpowering sensation of _deja vu_ although he couldn't for the life of him scrape up a previous encounter. _Didn't Rouge say there was a blue hedgehog in the ARK? Does this feeling prove that I __**have **__seen him before?_

"Sonic the Hedgehog," said the bat, confirming Shadow's thought. "He fought with you on the ARK, and then fought alongside you to stop it falling." She gave him a curious look. "Do you remember him at all?"

"I– I'm not sure," said Shadow uncertainly. "I feel like I ought to recognize him, I think, only I don't. If that makes any sense." He shook his head in frustration. _**I'm**__ not even sure what I'm talking about! How can anyone else understand?_ Overhead somewhere, the cannon on the roof fired.

To his surprise though, Rouge did seem to understand. She nodded, keeping her eyes on him, although a twitch of her ears showed she was aware of the "bullet" chamber returning down the column. Her hand twitched by her side, but she only said "It's okay Shadow. I know what you mean." Now she turned to look at the chamber as it settled back into the floor.

"I've heard of bullet trains, but this is ridiculous," she groused. "Omega, are you sure this thing is safe?" To Shadow's ears, she sounded unusually nervous.

"The pods in the chambers ensure safe transport of both inanimate objects and life forms."

"I just hope you know what I'm doing," she sighed. Shadow followed her across the room to the chambers. They were taller than they looked; he had stand on tiptoe to peer over the edge and Rouge couldn't see onto the top at all. As she started to spread her wings, he caught her by the waist and boosted up onto the top. "Oh! Um, thanks, Shadow." The top was flat and featureless except for a sextet of holes, each large enough to hold a human or Egg pawn. Rouge stood up and circled the nearest hole, looking at it doubtfully.

Shadow hoisted himself up as well and looked into the hole with her. It was fitted out with a capsule, well padded. Omega clanked up behind him. "We're supposed to get in one of these?" asked Shadow.

"Affirmative. The heading will be different than the prior intruders' destination. Shall I reset it to follow them?"

"No," answered Rouge. "I think we'll let them go that way and we'll go a different one... unless you think the way they went is more likely to be where Eggman is."

The robot appeared to consider this a moment. "Current location of Eggman is unknown and cannot be calculated without more data. One way is as likely as another. All underground trains lead to a base."

"_A_base?" Rouge looked up sharply. "He has more than one out here?"

"Affirmative. Eggman has several small bases in the badlands in case one is attacked."

"Hmm." Shadow waited, watching Rouge think. Finally the bat shrugged. "Well, if one is as good as another, let's go with however this is set.

"You're _sure_ this is safe?"

Shadow smirked as she asked the robot again. "I didn't know bats were afraid of flying, Rouge."

"It's not the flying, it's the being flung through the air out of control," she retorted.

"The capsule is precisely shaped and aimed for exact control of direction and landing site," stated Omega.

"It's the being flung through the air out of _my_ control," clarified Rouge. She was staring down into the capsule again. Shadow thought she looked paler than usual.

Hesitantly, he reached out and touched her hand. "Hey, I'm the one who should be backing away from these capsules - according to you I've spent most of my life stuck in one or another." It wasn't the best reassurance, but it distracted her, at least.

Rouge looked at him and dredged up a smile. "That's true. I certainly hope we don't get stuck in these for fifty-odd years." He watched her sit on the edge of the hole and lower herself in. Omega was already postitioned in another capsule, leaving four vacant. Shadow picked the one to Rouge's left and dropped in.

At once a lid slid across the top of his capsule and the main cylinder began to turn. He shifted a bit uncertainly amid the padding. Something he couldn't really remember was telling him he needed to get out, NOW!_ That was a joke, what I told Rouge about being nervous, not a suggestion! I'm the Ultimate Life-form; I'm not afraid of anything!_

_I wish I believed myself. _A sudden increase in velocity yanked him back into the padding. A brief weightless period followed, then there was a faint clink, and the pressure holding him to the cushions eased. A moment or two later, the top slid open and he realized he was lying on his back. He quickly wriggled out. He was standing on a broad landing pad with a dozen or so other capsules lying around, and many more lined upright along one side. Omega was hauling his scarlet frame out of one capsule, but he didn't see Rouge...

Her heard her first, and skated quickly across the platform towards her cries. They appeared to be coming from a capsule that had landed with the nose pressed against a prior arrival. Shadow tried to roll it over, to free the nose, but was unable to budge it until Omega joined him. The robot shoved the obstructing capsule easily away from Rouge's and as the top finally opened Shadow ducked down and pulled Rouge out.

The bat clutched at him desperately as he set her on her feet, panting in evident terror. Not really sure how to react, Shadow patted her gingerly on the back. "Shhh. It's okay, you're safe now," he mumbled uncertainly. It didn't seem to have much effect. Changing tack, he said, louder, "I didn't know you were claustrophobic."

Rouge tensed up instantly and shoved him away. Giving him an indignant glare, she turned on her heel and stalked away. Shadow smirked and glided after her. "There appears to be an elevator or something over this way," he said as he caught up with her, waving a hand to the left.

She nodded and moved the indicated direction. It did indeed appear to be a freight elevator, three sides and a floor of steel mesh for lowering goods down from the platform, but it was apparently locked at their level. Omega clumped up behind them, eyed the obstruction briefly, then extended a gun and blasted the mesh floor out of existence. Then the robot stepped off the edge and dropped out of sight down the dark shaft. Shadow frowned, wishing he knew how far down it went. He was pretty durable, but he didn't like the idea of jumping blind.

"Shadow?" He looked up at Rouge. She was holding both hands out to him. "I'll give you a ride down." She looked away, and added, very quietly, "Thanks."

"Thank you. A ride would be appreciated," he answered, guessing that the best response to her thanks was to ignore them. Clearly her claustrophobia was not anything she wanted to discuss. It seemed a bit odd, now that he thought about it, considering that her job seemed to frequently involve squeezing through tight spaces. She'd come into the island base where she'd found him via an air shaft. And the shaft before them didn't seem all that wide, but she didn't seem at all perturbed about dropping down it into who-knew-what. Putting the matter aside for the moment, he caught her hands and felt himself lifted slightly off the ground before they dropped into the dark shaft.


	7. Confession

6. Confession

Rouge dropped through the darkness with her wings spread to control their speed of descent. Below Shadow's feet, a light grew brighter until they dropped into an enormous underground tunnel, with a half-dozen pairs of train tracks running along it. Rouge flicked a wing to steer them towards the side where Omega waited on an elevated walkway.

"Why would anyone want to walk along here with all those trains?" Shadow had to yell the question, as one of 'those trains' roared through the tunnel. Boldly red and black, like Omega and the hedgehog himself, the train had what amounted to a face on the front end, complete with eyes and horns. The back end was the same, he noted, with a second engine facing backwards.

Rouge had her hands pressing her hat brim firmly over her ears, cringing as the train left them in its wake. Before Shadow could repeat his question though, she answered, "This is just an emergency walkway. In case one of the trains breaks down or something. She turned away a moment and uncovered her ears long enough to grope for something. As she turned back towards Shadow and the silent robot she was slipping something into her ears. "Earplugs," she answered Shadow's unasked question. "As a bat, my ears are a lot more sensitive than most people's and so I always carry a pair in case I get stuck in too-noisy locations."

"Bats can see in the dark with their sonar," said Shadow, as the information popped into his head. Omega had looked left and right and started clumping left, the way the train had been going. Shadow followed, with Rouge walking right behind him.

"Sort of," said Rouge. "But I'm not that kind of bat. _Microchiroptera _produce ultrasonic sounds and navigate based on the echoes of those sounds, but the dokan bats, like most of the _Megachiroptera_, don't have that ability. Instead we have excellent eyesight as well as superb hearing."

_Microchiroptera__, small bats; __Megachiroptera__, the large fruit bats also known as flying foxes. How do I know this stuff? _Apparently he asked that question out loud, because Rouge answered.

"During your growth cycle on the ARK you received a great deal of flash training. Everything that most people learn in twelve years of school, you woke up knowing." After a few moments she continued, "You told me once that the flash training knowledge was just...there. Dry and featureless, and popping up out of nowhere when you needed it. But your _real_ knowledge - the things you'd actually experienced - had feelings and memories associated with them.

"There's another train coming. Shall we hitch a ride?"

"Hitch?" Before he could ask what she meant the train was upon them and both Rouge and Omega were jumping towards it. Shadow hastily leaped after them, landing on a flatcar with a row of capsules at one end. He paused long enough to adjust to the change in acceleration, then moved towards the front of the train; Rouge and Omega were a car or two ahead.

Unfortunately the car or two ahead were already occupied by Egg pawns, who immediately turned on the new arrivals. Shadow knocked two off the car completely, then ducked as Omega sprayed the remaining mechs with homing missiles. By the time the cars were clear, the train was pulling into an underground station. Shadow and his companions ducked quickly off the far side as a swarm of robots approached to unload the train's cargo. Another freight elevator provided an egress, carrying them up to a platform in the full sunlight. With a touch of resignation, Shadow saw that the only apparent way off was more rails. However, these were much shorter and interconnected several platforms with buildings on them. Guards were clearly visible in front of each building. The largest building appeared to be a storage or maintenance facility for the trains below with other rooms above. "It's starting to look like a base," he said.

"Here we go!" said Rouge, attempting to sound enthusiastic as she stepped on the rails leading to the main building.

"Prepare to infiltrate," agreed Omega, managing to sound much more so, in spite of his mechanically level tones.

The guards at the door were quickly disposed of. The lower level was indeed full of trains, parts, and equipment; the robotic mechanics working there ignored the new arrivals, so Shadow and Rouge ignored them as well, spreading out to look for the way upstairs. A sudden fusillade of shots indicated that Omega was not so forbearing. Shadow located the door to the stairs, but was disappointed to find that the upstairs area was a single large room full of storage racks for more machine parts.

Rouge sighed behind him. "Well so much for that. One of the other desert bases, do you think, or should we go right on out to the forest?"

Shadow sighed himself as he sat down on a spare piece of equipment. Rouge perched herself on a table opposite him as he considered. "I suppose," he answered at last, "that as long as we're here we should check the other local bases. Maybe Omega knows where they are so we won't have to use those cannons again."

Rouge flinched, her wings curling protectively around her shoulders. "You _had_ to remind me." She rubbed her forehead with one hand. "I'm not really claustrophobic - it's not the size of the capsule that's the problem. It's just..." Her voice trailed off as she looked at her very dusty boots, avoiding Shadow's gaze.

Shadow was intensely curious, but kept his tone level, saying only "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Rouge glanced up at him through her lashes and looked back down. For once there was nothing coy about the bat as she sat there swinging her feet. From below they could hear Omega crashing around bellowing that "All inferior robots must be eliminated." At last she drew a deep breath and looked back up at Shadow.

"You really don't remember anything about the ARK incident or Prison Island, do you?" Without waiting for Shadow's head-shake, she went on, "Well, like I said before, Dr. Eggman needed the seven Chaos Emeralds. Because of my... contacts... I knew that GUN had three of them stashed away in their vault on Prison Island. Dr. Eggman was going to run around blasting up the harbor as a distraction while I snuck in and got the Emeralds and you placed bombs to blow up the base afterwards." There was another long, foot-swinging pause. Shadow waited patiently, and at last the bat went on.

"Well," she sighed, "I got in all right, and found the Emeralds with no trouble - treasure-hunting is my avocation and I'm good at it - but then it all fell apart. As I was heading back to the door of the vault... There was a manned guardian mech, a 'Flying Dog', it was called, and it tried to stop me; I beat it easily enough, no problem, but..." Again her voice trailed off and Shadow waited, watching as Rouge shifted uncomfortably where she sat. At last she swallowed and said, "I smashed the machine and the pilot dashed out of the vault through an escape hatch of some sort -_ which I couldn't get open_. I ran for the main vault door, but it was sealed. I couldn't do anything about that - even Eggman's 'bom-boms' couldn't affect _that _door - but the time was running out fast, so I ran back to the escape hatch and still couldn't get it open. I called for help, but Eggman didn't care, he just yelled at me for ruining everything and – you didn't answer but I couldn't see a reason for you to come back, so I kept kicking and prying at the hatch. Nothing I tried worked, and all I could think about was the counter ticking down on the detonator, I sat down as the time ran out - I had three of the most valuable and powerful gems in the world in my hands, and couldn't even help myself, _and I couldn't get out! _" She shivered and was silent again, her eyes on the hands she was knotting together in her lap.

"But you obviously did," said Shadow softly. "You're here." He wasn't certain what he was supposed to do at this point. They needed to get going but Rouge obviously wasn't ready to go. He didn't think he knew enough yet to take the lead position and Omega certainly wasn't suited for it.

Rouge drew a shuddery breath. "Yes. You appeared out of nowhere with two seconds to detonation and snatched me and the Emeralds back to the ARK. I... I couldn't believe you actually came back, although you _said _it was just for the Emeralds."

She shook herself. "Anyway," she went on in a brisker tone, "it's not a question of the space - that vault was enormous, with multiple rooms - but of being trapped. When that last capsule crashed, and I couldn't get it to open– I– it scared me badly. I wasn't sure if you and Omega could find me, or if you'd even ended up the same place, or what." She looked up as Shadow, now standing before her, placed his hand on her own, still tangled together in her lap.

The dark hedgehog regarded her solemnly with his crimson eyes. His mind was still scrambling frantically for the appropriate response, finally tossing up a glimmer of memory: Maria shivering in her nightgown after a bad dream. '_I won't leave you trapped, Maria. If the researchers lock you away in a hospital lab, I'll find you anywhere and let you out again.' _ He altered the wording a bit. "I won't leave you trapped, Rouge," he said quietly. "If you get locked in anywhere, I'll get you out."

The bat met his gaze, then closed her eyes and nodded. "Thank you, Shadow." She disentangled one hand and placed it atop his own. They remained thus a moment, then with a sigh Rouge slid off the equipment she was sitting on and stood up. "Shall we go see what Omega has left of this base?"


	8. A Broken Shadow

7. A Broken Shadow

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Shadow and Rouge scanned the repair shop. Shadow spotted the red armor-plate first and pointed towards where Omega stood, surrounded by a heap of 'lesser machines'.

"Enemies neutralized," announced the robot as the other two approached. "Combat skills non-existent. I am the greatest of Eggman's creations. There are no other robots who can challenge me."

"Especially when they're mere train mechanics," muttered Rouge. Shadow, right behind her, smirked. Omega didn't seem to hear.

"Sensor readings give no indication of Eggman presence in this base. Suggest we travel to next base to continue search."

"Do you know how to get to the next base?" asked Shadow.

"The cannon chamber is this way," replied the robot, starting off towards the door. Shadow glanced at Rouge, who grimaced but followed Omega. Shadow fell in behind her.

As it turned out, they didn't have to go that far; a platform ran like a broad corridor from the repair garage to the closest cannon base. As they walked along it, Shadow saw Rouge start and look up into the sky, shading her eyes with a hand - in spite of her hat and glasses. He joined her in looking up and around, although it was several seconds before he heard the motors that had evidently alerted her.

"There!" He pointed at a red and yellow shape swooping around one of the cliffs and heading in their direction.

"Eggman aerial vehicle in sight. Illogical repeat of machine previously determined to be inadequate," announced Omega.

Shadow frowned, trying to puzzle out the last sentence. It was made clear as the 'aerial vehicle' in question suddenly zoomed into place above their platform. The approaching craft was the same armed bird-plane - the Egg Hawk - that the trio had faced down on the beach the morning before. However, this time it was strapped atop a blimp that was itself armed.

"Illogical repeat will lead to rapid destruction of this vessel. I will have my revenge against Eggman!" The thudding of the robot's heavy tread increased in volume as he increased his pace. Shadow could feel the platform shaking through the soles of his hover shoes. He kicked them quickly into hover mode and started skating.

"We got him!" cried Rouge, increasing her own speed to a run down the platform. She evidently agreed with Omega's conclusion that the machine would be as easy to defeat this time as last.

Shadow wasn't as certain of that, and while he had reasons of his own for stopping Eggman, the human's death would render those reasons null and void. "Capture him first," he cautioned, "then you can have your revenge, Omega."

"Affirmative," responded the robot.

The plane-blimp had passed overhead and made a long turn; now it was roaring up the length of the platform towards them. Shadow's hearing might not be as good as Rouge's, but he could hear Eggman yelling, "Ready all cannons! Open fire!" At once the guns of the vessel sprang to life: bullets, lasers, and - _was that a cannonball? _- streaking towards the three.

"We have to get him, no matter what, all right?" Shadow knew he was repeating himself, but he couldn't help it; he was acutely worried that the Doctor might be killed before he could be made to explain his comments about the hedgehog's memory.

"Okay." Rouge agreed, but then she needed the Doctor alive for her own purposes.

"Affirmative." At least the robot wasn't arguing. The hedgehog hoped he wasn't sophisticated enough to actually lie.

Shadow bounced into the air reflexively as another of the large black objects smashed the boards just in front of him. He caught a glimpse of a spiked sphere, before it was behind him. He increased his pace, putting himself in front of both his partners and weaving back and forth across the platform. As he'd hoped, most of the gunfire now was aimed at him - or at least, the robots manning the guns were _trying _to aim at him. As he dodged and jumped the only thing he really had to worry about was the cannon - it didn't alter its aim to follow him, so he had to watch that he didn't leap in front of one of the massive steel balls. And now missiles began to streak forward past his head and shoulders. _I sure hope those are Omega's_, he thought grimly, as he upped his speed another notch, skating ever closer to the flying machine.

The cannon on front of the blimp suddenly exploded and fell silent. Almost immediately Rouge flew past along the left edge of the platform as Shadow feinted towards the right. A couple of steel-toed kicks put either the guns or the gunner-robots out of commission on the left side of the blimp. A few more missiles similarly put paid to the right-side armaments. Shadow dropped his distraction ploy and sprinted straight for the gondola. No vehicle on earth could match him when he strove for speed. While Rouge battered the left side and Shadow began homing attacks on the right, Omega continued to thunder along the platform firing missiles. Unfortunately they were about to run out of platform.

Suddenly, with a staccato set of loud clicks, the undercarriage of the blimp dropped away leaving the gas cell with the Egg Hawk still attached to the top. "I'm not done yet!" bellowed the rotund pilot, as the reduced vehicle circled up and around towards another platform.

"Don't let your guards down," Shadow cautioned the others, as he jumped on a rail in pursuit.

"I know..." replied Rouge, "you be careful too!" There was no response from the robot.

Shadow leapt off the rail and raced down the next platform. This one was a guard station of some sort, and the trio were briefly halted by the need to defeat the attacking guards. The blimp gained a little ground on them, but not enough to shield the gas chambers from Omega's missiles. Now the avian airplane detached completely and took flight under its own power. Meanwhile a second detachment of guards attempted to stop the intruders, and the trio had to clip the wings of a flight of plane-bots before they could continue.

Before they were quite done, the Egg Hawk dove down, firing from its beak. Shadow snatched Rouge out of the way as the stream of bullets demolished the plane-bot she'd been battling. "Thanks," she gasped, staring at the metal shards that had a moment before been her opponent. But she recovered immediately, catching Shadow's eye and jerking a head up towards the metal bird. He caught her meaning and nodded, raising his hands as she took wing, then picked him up and hurled him at the circling plane. He homed in on the closest wing, specifically targeting the engine, as he had with the first version, and slammed it repeatedly. By now he'd recovered enough of his abilities to hit the target several times, land briefly on the wing to take aim again and home-attack the engine several more times - he no longer needed to be tossed up every blow or three. The engine gave up the ghost and he bounced his way up the wing and across to the other engine. He barely heard the cry "You'll pay for this!" as almost simultaneously the craft exploded.

Caught entirely unawares, Shadow was knocked away from not only the plane but the platform and rails as well. For a moment he was falling down into the void - he hadn't realized how high up they'd gotten - then he was suddenly caught up in a wave of absolute terror as the memory overwhelmed him of a plummet from far higher up, with no way to stop it–

He was jolted, literally, out of the memory as a hand grabbed his arm and brought his fall to an abrupt end. His other hand reached up wildly, grabbing at his savior.

"Ouch! Take it _easy_, Shadow, I've got you." Rouge's voice sounded over his head as he was hoisted up and back over the platform. He let go his grasp as his feet touched the wooden boards, then looked about for Omega. The robot was looking at something on the ground amidst the Egg Hawk's wreckage. Shadow ran towards him, worried that the doctor might have been killed; he felt a bit singed from the explosion himself, and humans weren't as durable as common dokan, let alone Ultimate Life-forms.

"Error," said Omega as they approached. "Eggman life-signs detected were false; Eggman presence simulated only."

Before Shadow could interpret that, he heard the doctor laughing, "Muahahaha! Muahahaha!" But it sounded wrong, almost artificial, like... Shadow stopped short as he saw what lay on the ground in front of Omega. Artificial indeed - a smashed robot with the outward appearance of Dr. Eggman lay there, half melted. The head, on a spring for some reason, bobbed and nodded idiotically as the fractured voicebox continued to repeat, "Muahahaha!" The red robot clenched a metal fist and shook it in mechanical outrage. Shadow turned away with a mixture of disappointment and relief - and froze. He'd never considered the accuracy of that phrase, but it truly felt like his blood had turned to ice. _Dear God_, he thought_. No... please, no!_

There had been a half dozen Egg pawns or more manning the weapons, so it was no surprise that the false doctor wasn't the only robot among the wreckage. But it was no smashed orange Egg pawn that chilled Shadow's veins, but a black torso, lying prone with its head turned to one side, marked in red down the arms and quills. Shadow stared, feeling his heart pound in his chest, as his gaze noted the sleek black coat and longer tuft of white (fake?) fur that matched his own._ "Your memory? What memory? You have no past to remember!" _ There was no blood, of course; the lower body ended in a tangle of sparking wires, but there was some sort of fluid oozing from under the... skin, or whatever the covering should be called. Shadow swallowed hard, and tore his gaze away from the doppelganger, staring past the platform to where he could just make out a line of green on the horizon._ "...no past to remember!" _ He half-turned as he felt someone approach.

"Shadow..." Rouge, staring at the robot, clearly didn't know what to say. She looked at Shadow and half-raised a hand, then let it fall again, looking truly distressed.

Shadow abruptly knew he couldn't tolerate sympathy, not right now. He spun on his heel, turning his back on the... _thing_... behind him and continuing along the platform. "Let's go!" he said harshly. He was aware of the others' footsteps behind him, but at the moment he didn't really care.


	9. Bogs and Frogs

8. Bogs and Frogs

As it happened, there was a small jet, similar to Rouge's, parked in a side chamber at the base of the cannon. While Rouge fiddled with the door to the plane, Omega opened the wide doors of the hangar.

Shadow sat cross-legged on the floor with his back against the wall, ignoring both of them. He pressed one hand to his chest, just at the base of his tuft of longer, white fur. _I can feel my heart beating. Why would a robot need a heart? _

_But why would a robot need fur? Omega and the Egg pawns certainly haven't got any. Perhaps robots with fur do have hearts for some purpose, or at least a pump that gives a feel like a heartbeat. Am I sure I could tell the difference between the feel of a real heartbeat and an artificial one?_

_I remember Maria's heartbeat _- no, all his memories were suddenly suspect -_ well, perhaps I could check Rouge's– _Just the thought of that made his cheeks grow hot for some reason. Why it should be okay to listen to Maria's heart and not Rouge's was a mystery, but he was acutely aware that the latter was NOT to be done. His hand dropped back into his lap. _Okay, I don't know. But why would I be able to remember things if they weren't real?_

_Because I was programmed to. Because that flash training Rouge mentioned can be used with sufficiently advanced robots to imprint behaviors too complicated for standard programming to emulate._

_How do I know that? _He knew the answer even as he asked himself. _From my flash training; I know it but it's not associated to anything. But wait, Rouge said that I'd said that my flash training was like that, flat and there when I called for it, but my memories - false memories? - had other associations. The memories I have __**do**__ have associated thoughts and feelings. I remember the __**terror**__ of fleeing with Maria, and, and ... _He paused, stuck. Many of the glimmers of memory that had flashed up had then disappeared again. He remembered having them, and even the circumstances of having them - _there was something about checks... _- but the memories themselves were gone. The only things that were truly stuck in his head were the specific memories that had inspired his nightmare, and of course the things that had happened since Rouge had awakened him in that base. Was it really just a day ago?

_**Rouge says**__ you told her that. Perhaps she was lying. Or perhaps there's more than one way of imprinting things. Perhaps there is a way to link feelings and sensations and other thoughts into specific 'memories'._

_No. _He shook his head unconsciously._ Rouge wouldn't – well, she wasn't lying about that. _As for the other, he couldn't give a good answer why not, other than that he didn't think it was true. _No. I go on. I go on, and I find where the real Doctor is hiding, and I make him tell me the truth. But I can't be a robot. Not really. Can I?_

He realized someone was in front of him and jerked his head up. Rouge started back so suddenly she almost fell. "Umm, Shadow, I've got the plane ready to go, and Omega's already on board," she said diffidently, not quite looking at the hedgehog. "I thought that since there was a fake Eggman here, the other bases might have fakes also, as decoys, and the real scientist is probably somewhere else, so I was going to go on to the castle next. If that's okay with you."

"Fine," said Shadow shortly, as he got up. He followed her to the plane and they boarded, then Rouge took it up and out, and pointed the nose towards the distant green hills.

The flight was smooth until they were well over the jungle, with the dry canyons all but lost to view. Shadow, still brooding fruitlessly, was knocked out of his thoughts as the plane suddenly bucked and went into a dive.

"The engine's dead!" shouted Rouge.

"Recommend switching to vegetable transport," said Omega calmly.

"Vegetable transport?" Looking out the window, Shadow saw what the robot meant. Forcing the door open against the wind, he grabbed Rouge with one hand and took a running jump out of the plane, aiming for the biggest vines he'd ever seen. He landed on one in a crouch and started sliding down it, with Rouge behind him, clinging to his waist. He glanced back to see the plane go up in a fireball as it crashed into a... fungus?... the size of a skyscraper. Momentarily, he has jolted out of his personal dilemma. What had Rouge said about this jungle? Craning his neck to see the bat behind him, he shouted, "'Large' frogs? Like these 'large' fungi?"

The wind snatched at his words, but Rouge heard them. She grinned at him and yelled back, "Not quite a large as the fungi, but bigger than any of us." She nodded forward warningly and Shadow faced front again, noting that they were rapidly approaching the end of the vine. Beyond the final curl of stem, a patch of green stood a few feet above the swamp waters.

Shadow crouched slightly, preparing to jump off when he hit the end of the vine. "I shall find the answer to who I really am," he vowed... and leapt.

The ground was spongy on top, and thickly covered with some sort of low groundcover. Stamping a foot experimentally, Shadow realized that the area was the top of some sort of rock formation, covered with soil that had washed up and formed a base for the plants. It might well be underwater at certain times of year. Looking around he saw lush stands of enormous mushrooms, flocks of lily pads both huge and normal-sized, and scattered examples of the truly gigantic fungi that looked like beehives on stalks. Vines, again of many sizes, wove and twisted among the plants, and dotted around the water itself he saw other rock-based islands.

Rouge tapped him on the shoulder and pointed. Sighting along her finger, he beheld one of the 'large' frogs.

The green amphibian was marked with gold, and had the incredible gold-and-brown mottled eyes that Maria had loved. This frog would never hide under duckweed, though; squatting on land its head was higher than Shadow's, or even Omega's. One hind leg extended would probably be more than ten feet long! Shadow stared in amazement at the creature. "Legend has it," said Rouge beside him, "that the frogs can summon rain."

Legend was proved accurate as Omega suddenly issued his battle cry of, "Destroy all Eggman's robots!" and charged the resting amphibian. The frog let out a deafening croak and leaped over the robot's head into the swamp, diving underwater and presumably swimming away. Before the creature even hit the water, Shadow found himself and his companions standing in the middle of an abrupt downpour.

"Useless defense," commented Omega. "This unit is completely waterproof and able to function in any environment.

Rouge sighed and rolled her eyes. "Omega, remember what I told you before? There really _are_ a lot of things that _aren't_ robots created by Dr. Eggman." She pulled a gadget out of her pocket and studied it a moment. "This way, I think," she said finally. Shadow fell in behind her as she headed off.

The terrain was a challenge. The trio had to jump, climb and scramble to get from one island to another, using the giant lily pads and sometimes vines to cross the water. Some islands stood well clear of the water's surface, or had several levels; others were low enough that only the top of the moss was above the water, and the companions were actually standing in an inch or two of water. At one point Shadow and Rouge had to struggle to drag Omega out of a marshy spot; thereafter the robot followed only where the hedgehog or the bat had already stepped. They had to stop frequently for Rouge to consult her G.P.S. compass, as it was impossible to move in anything resembling a straight line for more than a few yards. Shadow found a few spots where the ubiquitous rings had lined up to form bridges between hummocks, and pulled his companions along those. Rouge quite sensibly refused to consider swimming on the grounds that who knew what sort of giant monsters might be lurking in the murky water. Shadow not only agreed with her, he had a strong suspicion that he didn't know how to swim. Eyeing a set of ripples that seemed to be keeping pace with them, he silently reiterated that this was not the time to try to find out. All too soon, however, they ran out of islands.

The next portion of the swamp stretched away in front of the white bat, who seemed to be taking it as a personal affront. The only things breaking the surface in this area were the stems of the massive fungi, as large around as buildings. There weren't even any fortuitously located ring chains. Shadow settled himself on the stalk of a fallen mushroom and swatted at the mosquitoes that seemed to be trying to drain him dry. _Hmmph. The Ultimate Life-form meets his match - the vampire mosquito. _The heat was, if anything, worse than that of the canyons and the humidity was magnifying it all out of proportion. _Good thing I'm not a real hedgehog,_ he thought with a tinge of amusement, thinking of the spiny, little animal. _I'd have to anoint myself in this heat, and wouldn't __**that **__give Rouge a shock! _Maria had asked him once if he'd anoint himself if he ever got too hot - an unlikely occurrence in the temperature-controlled space colony. He'd had to look up the reference - and been torn between laughter and mortification when he'd done so; hedgehogs (not the dokan ones, he devoutly hoped) dealt with excessive heat by anointing their bodies with saliva or urine. _I don't remember if I ever answered her, but I remember hoping the professor never found out she'd asked me. I also hoped she'd never ask me to demonstrate. Ouch! _He swatted another importunate bug into oblivion. Rouge was now looking up, and he followed her gaze. A tangle of giant creepers were rooted into the upper levels of this island, and stretched all the way to the closest of the giant fungi. Shadow stood up and walked over to join the bat. "We go up?"

"You got it," she answered. "Up and across."

Shadow leapt lightly up to the upper level of the island and gave her a hand up, while Omega again pounded a few 'hand holes' and pulled his massive frame up alongside them. "Enemy robots detected."

Shadow and Rouge turned to see a pair of bird-shaped planes - much smaller than the Egg Hawk - diving in on them with Egg pawns underneath. The planes dropped the robots and circled, whereupon Rouge flitted after them and kicked them into the marsh. Omega and Shadow gave the same treatment to the Egg pawns and then the three started climbing the creepers.

It quickly became apparent that the various Eggman robots had been alerted to their position, because from that point on, the things were everywhere. Shadow battled Egg pawns, plane-bots (including a new kind that produced spikes unexpectedly), robot turtles, and jellyfish. Additionally, there was a humanoid giant robot that wielded a massive hammer. However the hammer was so heavy that it often pulled the giant off-balance, an opening that Shadow and Rouge lost no time in exploiting. Omega, of course, just stood back and blasted the giants the same as everything else. The three companions were helped, oddly, by the frogs; the sudden showers that the amphibians triggered when alarmed (and they found battles very alarming) tended to cause sudden growth spurts in the local vegetation, and often offered alternate routes. These were particularly appreciated by Shadow since the path was now high above the swamp, and a misstep would result in a long drop before splash-down. Omega didn't seem particularly bothered by the possibility of falling - but he'd suggested walking across the bottom of the marsh, until Rouge pointed out that not only would she and Shadow not be able to breathe but there was a good chance of literally bogging down. Rouge, of course, could fly if she fell off the path.

As they worked their way deeper, a new, black frog began to appear. Shadow didn't pay much attention to them, other than noting the purple-on-black coloration, until his path passed directly in front of one of the dark frogs. As he darted ahead to close with the next group he was startled by a shower of _black_ rain - and the vegetation above the enemy shriveled and shed its massive fruits. Shadow dodged the rolling spheres easily enough, but his foes weren't so agile. He stopped to stare at the fallen enemies. The metal forms appeared to have been steamrollered.

"Defeated by fruit," was Omega's epitaph for them, "how weak they must be."

Shadow and Rouge shared an amused glance and continued through the jungle. At the top of one outcropping, they found a strange-looking flower, twisting back and forth as the wind caught its stiff circlet of petals. Eyeing the oddly slanted petals, Shadow commented, " It looks like a fan."

"Hmm," countered Rouge, "looks more like a dandelion seed to me."

Shadow frowned. "What's a dandelion?" He actually did know it was some type of flower, but that seemed to be the extent of his knowledge.

"One of these, in fact," said Rouge. She plucked a white puffball from amid a cluster of bright yellow buds and blooms. Holding it up to her face, she blew on it, causing a stream of white flecks to float off the stem and towards the hedgehog. He caught a few out of the air and looked at them. The tiny basal seeds and slim stalk stood out clearly against the white palm of his glove, but he had to lay them on the red part of the cuff to see the white, feathery top. He blew gently and they floated off again. He looked back to the giant flower. With a mischievous grin that no one had seen in over fifty years, he stepped up and yanked the flower out of the ground.

"Grab hold," he said, as he presented it to Rouge and Omega. The robot automatically complied. Rouge eyed the dark hedgehog suspiciously, then slowly took hold of the stem herself. Shadow took a step back and did his tornado move. He barely had time to snatch at Omega's feet as the flower shot skywards in the updraft he'd created. Rouge let loose an ecstatic yell as the strange aircraft dipped and swayed across towards the next landing point. Shadow had to push away hastily to keep the robot from landing on top of him as they let go over the next big fungus. A vine swing took them to one more guard post and then, those last robots defeated, they found themselves at the edge of a lake with only a few of the fungi in it, and these only the size of normal swamp trees. The vines draped between them were also more a normal size. On the far edge of the lake stood a rather fantastic-looking castle, with towers and walls everywhere. It was rather beautifully spot-lit by the sun setting behind the trio.

"Well," said Rouge, "last leg of _this _journey. Any suggestions?"

"Of course," answered Shadow, with a sudden grin.


	10. To the Haunted Castle

9. To the Haunted Castle

Shadow took a step or two back from the shore, then darted forward calling "Follow me!" At the water's edge, he leapt and caught one of the looped vines, using it to swing forward, then releasing it and catching the next vine in front of him before he fell. He heard Rouge's annoyed exclamation behind him as he made his second swing and jumped for a third vine. _Maria was all but bouncing around the room; if it hadn't been time for her grandfather to return from the Deep Lab, Shadow suspected she'd have been jumping on the bed. "Aren't they marvelous Shadow?" she cried, pausing behind his chair a moment. Her blond hair tumbled about him as she leaned forward over the seat back. For a moment she watched the trapeze artists tumbling through the air on the screen in front of them, then she went back to leaping around the room. She did a cartwheel and a somersault, then bounced back to her feet again, jumping forward on her toes, with her upper body inclined and arms back in imitation of the artistes on the circus show. "Wouldn't that be fun? I wish I could learn to do that. You could be my teammate and catch me from your bar as I __**leap**__ through the air without even a safety net!"_

Shadow was jarred out of the hijacking memory as - something - exploded up out of the water behind him. He heard Rouge yelp, then the bat darted past on the wing. "Look out! There's a crocodile or something down there!" The black hedgehog heard Omega trying to shoot whatever-it-was, but didn't dare look away from the series of vines he was swinging on. He could operate on automatic, swinging and thinking at the same time, but he knew without having to try it that it only worked as long as he was looking the direction he was traveling in. A dark shape - the same or a different one? - stirred in the water beneath him and water showered around him as it broke the surface behind him. The next moment a vast pair of jaws snapped up in front of him and he barely managed to turn his swing into a flip and avoid them. Omega's guns sounded again behind him.

And suddenly the attack was over. So were the vines. Shadow pulled off one more flip and landed neatly beside Rouge, who was standing on the final island watching him and Omega approach. Shadow turned to look back with her, but saw nothing but subsiding ripples and the bright red form of Omega swinging at them. The robot landed with a loud squish next to the two dokan. Rouge caught Shadow's eye and pointed to a higher level of the small island. He nodded and they climbed up, followed by Omega, and sat in the shade of a large leaf. After a moment, Shadow leaned back and stretched out on the mossy groundcover. Rouge grinned at him, leaning back with her arms propping her up. "What? The Ultimate Life-form is tired?"

Shadow grinned back at her. "I was only designed to be immortal, not inexhaustible." _Inexhaustible_. Shadow felt the smile freeze on his face as the word sent a chill through him. _Exhausted. Alone, and falling, and __**so**__, so tired._

"Shadow?" A hand on his shoulder pulled him back to the present, with Rouge's worried face leaning over him. "Are you alright?"

"I..." He didn't know what to say. He stood up abruptly, pulling away from her gloved hand and walked to the edge of the ledge. And stared.

Just leaping off of the vines that he and Omega had come across - was the blue hedgehog. The little fox was twirling his tails rapidly behind him, helicoptering his way to the island with the echidna gliding alongside.

"Shadow?" Rouge was getting up to see what he was looking at.

"Look, it's that hedgehog!" He spoke louder than he intended and the three, now landing below him, turned to look up.

"Wonder what the big rush is all about?" Rouge sounded annoyed. "Betcha those guys will end up getting in my way and making trouble!"

The three below them didn't seem to hear her. They were all staring at Shadow, like people who were seeing a ghost. _Which probably isn't too far from the truth_, he had to concede. _After all, I __**am **__supposed to be dead._

The red one - _Fists? Gloves? something like that - _spoke first. "Hey, isn't that–"

"Sonic!" the twin-tailed fox cut across the echidna's sentence. The echidna -_ no, Knuckles, Rouge said _- glared in annoyance at the back of the cub's head.

The blue hedgehog, after one shocked look at Shadow, caught sight of Rouge and grinned. "Talk about being stubborn and full of surprises!" he said meaningfully to the bat.

Rouge growled softly as she stepped past Shadow. Raising her voice she called down, "Long time no see, boys! Too bad you had to come all this way for nothing! We'll take it from here!"

Knuckles raised his fists, stepping around the fox. "What'd you say?" The fox cub himself looked a bit bewildered, and Sonic merely looked amused.

Now Omega added his voice, "Sensors locked on Eggman! Non-compliant intruders will be destroyed!"

The blue hedgehog waved a pacifying hand at Knuckles before placing the hand on Tails' shoulder. His grin was cockiness itself as he called up, "Didn't you know? We have a date with Eggman too!"

"Well then!" Shadow was getting carried away by the tension of the moment. "It'll be a date to DIE for!" He nearly clapped a hand over his mouth. _Did I really just say that?_ Rouge and Omega had already jumped down to the lower level.

"Hey!" shouted Sonic indignantly, "That's my line!" He charged the base of the ledge and Shadow dropped down to meet him.

It was almost surreal, thought Shadow, as the two hedgehogs circled and attacked. His homing attacks ricocheted off of Sonic's, nearly causing him to hit Omega by accident. Sonic avoided his friends but had to backpedal wildly as he landed on the very brink of the lake Managing to get behind the blue, Shadow jumped up and kicked, striking Sonic solidly on the shoulder. With a wail of fright, the blue hedgehog lost his balance and hit the water with a splash. Shadow nearly followed him as the echidna charged past from behind, cutting a long, shallow dive into the water after his friend.

"Shadow," whined the fox cub as he 'tailicoptered' past, "we're your friends! You're not supposed to fight us." He began circling over the area where Sonic and Knuckles had gone under the water.

Shadow didn't pay much attention. He was beginning to get a little worried that the other hedgehog had not yet reappeared at the surface. After several more long moments, Knuckles erupted out of the water and tossed a gasping and coughing blue hedgehog onto the island. With a furious glare at Shadow, he snarled, "Sonic can't swim. I'd advise you to be gone before I get back on land."

Shadow wasn't afraid of the echidna...but he backed away as the red-furred dokan started pulling himself back onto the island. He jumped as a hand caught his and turned to see Rouge. "This way, I think. The weather's too warm here for the water to cool Knucklehead down properly."

"How are we going to get to the castle?" he asked her as he followed.

"Underwater causeway will allow access from here to castle exterior. Exterior will allow access to interior," Omega answered him.

_Underwater causeway? _He looked at the robot and realized Omega seemed to be standing on the water itself. Two steps further on, he realized that the 'causeway' ran a mere inch or so below the surface of the lake. He watched Rouge walk out to join Omega, then on a whim kicked on his hover shoes and skated forward, enjoying the illusion that he was gliding across the surface of the water.

After the struggle of the swamp crossing, the final bit of the journey was not only anticlimactic but downright boring. Shadow put his feet on automatic and returned to the riddle of his memories. _That flashback on the vines. It was so real! I could smell Maria's shampoo when she was leaning next to me, and feel the chair under me. That's NOT what my flash memories are like! I know that bats echolocate without hearing the flutter of wings or feeling the claws of a bat on my shoulder._

_That's not what my flash memories that I __**know **__are flash memories are like. Maybe I'm wrong though and there __**is **__another kind. Maybe Rouge and I are both wrong. Or maybe she's just not telling me. She'd do anything to get her hands on this treasure she's after, and __**nearly **__anything for her mission, I think._

_But, why can I call up the flash training knowledge when I need it but not the memories? That's the whole point of flash training, it comes when you need it. The memories don't, so how can they be..._

_But why did the doctor say what he did? What does he gain by making me think I have no past? And if I __**do **__have one, why can't I remember more than flickers?_

_Because head trauma and traumatic experiences can both cause amnesia. Plummeting to Earth from space would certainly be grounds for both._

_But I have only Rouge's word that I __**did **__fall from space. And how could even __**I**__ have survived that? _

They had crossed the lake, he realized, and were approaching the castle. The high curtain wall was tall enough to keep out most intruders, but Rouge was already trying to hoist Omega up to the battlements.

_Besides, what about Sonic? He has the same moves and powers that I do. Was he modeled after me - no, he's always been like that, Rouge said, or was I modeled after him? She said something once about a robot hedgehog made in Sonic's image to defeat him. So what's to stop me from being another such? If Doctor Eggman made me then I wouldn't have a past, and he'd know it._ He shook his head in frustration, unable to make any sort of sense out of it. He held up his hands automatically as Rouge dropped back down, and she lifted him up. Omega started down a ramp that spiraled around the closet tower as soon as they landed.

Rouge ran to catch up. "Are you sure this is the right way?"

"Affirmative."

She cast a concerned glance at Shadow. "What's up... something on your mind?"

"Well..." Shadow hesitated, then decided that this was not the time to go into it. "Never mind, let's go!" he said firmly. His mind, however, was not quite so obedient_. That blue hedgehog that looked like me... What did the doctor say about my memory? Just who __**am **__I?_ Growling at himself he shoved the dilemma to the back of his mind as he spotted the first guards ahead. It was a relief to be able to work out some of his frustration on something constructively destructive.

The massive gate was locked, not electronically, but with a massive, antiquated key-lock. Rouge retrieved the large, ornate key and its chain from around the non-existent neck of one of the robots. Omega took it from her and unlocked the gate, shoving it open. On the other side was a small stone-walled gatehouse with no other gate visible. The inside of the gatehouse was empty, save for a large, metal sphere with intricate runes engraved upon it.

Omega, with the blunt practicality of a robot, stamped forward and began pounding a metal fist against the walls. Rouge took wing and began checking the walls a bit higher up, so as to be out of the red mech's way. Shadow, unable to bring to mind anything that suggested he should be good at locating concealed doors or passages, moved forward and circled the metal sphere suspiciously.

"What is this thing?" he called up to Rouge. Or Omega; he didn't really care who answered.

"Some sort of decoration, probably,"the bat answered off-handedly, her attention on the wall in front of her. "Maybe like the gaze balls people put in their gardens." She fell silent again and continued probing the stones.

_Gardens I know of, but a gaze ball? _Nothing presented itself to his mind, either memory or flash-trained. _I suppose I've never heard of those._ He looked around and noted the stones in the corners of the walls were carved in a skull motif. The markings on the sphere weren't spooky images, though, in fact they looked more like letters. Curiosity overcame caution and he reached out to trace the symbols carved into the polished surface.

There was a flash, and suddenly he was falling upwards! He heard Rouge give a startled yelp, and Omega's "Minus gravity detected" then landed hard, but on his feet. A shocked Rouge thumped down next to him, also upright, but the robot overbalanced with a loud clang.

Shadow blinked, looking down at the wooden boards beneath him, then up. The ceiling was now made of familiar-looking flagstones with the metal sphere in the center like a strange chandelier. "Oh," he said. "Oops."

"The castle's turned upside down," said Rouge. She considered a moment then shook her head slightly. "No, that's silly. I suppose it's really _we _who have turned upside down. But there's the way out." She pointed at what was probably a window but now appeared to be a door.

Shadow hesitated. "Are you sure it's safe? I mean, how do we know this... antigravity effect is out there?"

"Reverse gravity," said Rouge. "Antigravity would null out gravity and make us float; this is actually pulling us in the opposite direction. And we don't know if it's out there yet. That's why I go out first, since I can catch myself if I end up in mid air, and you and Omega can come out after I'm sure it's safe."

"Good plan." He added solemnly, "I left my wings in my other coat."

The bat frowned at him. "You don't wear a coat."

"Of course I do," he answered, "the finest black fur with red accents and inbuilt defenses. And my other one has wings." He kept his face straight as he said it, but it was an effort.

Rouge groaned. "The Ultimate Life-form you may be, but the Ultimate Comedian you are not." She put a foot on the stone rim of the door/window and leaned out carefully. "Well, here goes." She stepped over the rim and through the opening.

Rather anticlimactically, that was all she did. Step over the rim and stand on the boards on the other side. She jumped up and down a few times, wings half spread just in case - but each time her boots thumped back onto the wood. She waved back at Shadow and the robot to join her.

Shadow stepped through and looked up. Or down, as the case may have been. They were in a largeish room that was more the expected size for a gatehouse, with a second large gate that presumably led into the castle's interior way down - or up - against the flagstoned floor. He looked around a few moments before he realized he was looking for a specific switch. "On the ARK," he said hesitantly, "there were a few places where the gravity could be flip-flopped, usually for ease of moving heavy cargo."

"Really?" said Rouge. She sounded as if she was being polite. "Do either of you see another globe? Or anything that might be a switch?"

"Negative. No globes or switches in visual range," stated the crimson robot. "Only a keyhole."

"Keyhole? Where?" Rouge turned around, looking for the alleged key hole. Shadow didn't see it, even when Omega pointed it out directly, placing a metal finger just under a crevice in the stone wall. Rouge flitted over and shoved the robot's hand out of the way, pulling out a small black roll of cloth. "Hmm. A number 6, I think." She deftly extracted a slender rod from the cloth and began probing the crack. Shadow still didn't see anything that looked like a keyhole, but he stayed back so as to not block her light. He did hear the faint click, followed by a louder rumble as a portion of the wall slid open, revealing another of the engraved spheres. Rouge tucked her instrument away, and the bundle. Then she reached back with one hand to catch Shadow's wrist while she brushed the fingers of the other against the metal. And suddenly they were landing on the flagstones again, in front of the inner gates. Which were solidly shut.


	11. The 'Siamese' Statue

10. The 'Siamese' Statue

Neither Rouge's skills nor Omega's strength could open the doors before them. Rouge barely managed to prevent the robot's simply blasting the doors with his missiles; Shadow suspected she really wanted to do something similar, but as she pointed out, it would be preferable to not tell the entire castle they were breaking in. Omega was not impressed by the risk of alerting the guards. "They are inferior machines. I will destroy them all, individually or all at once, as needed. I am the ultimate machine of the superior E-series."

"_You _may be able to take them all on at once," hissed Rouge in exasperation - Shadow had noticed that the louder the robot's pronouncements became, the quieter the bat made her own voice, "but Shadow and I will get caught in the crossfire and we aren't even inferior machines. We're flesh that can be destroyed if too many enemies attack."

"Then flesh creatures are inferior to robots and their existence is pointless. Anything that can be destroyed so easily is a waste of resources and power." Rouge threw Shadow a desperate glance, clearly at a loss as to how to deal with this turn of the argument.

Shadow had been studying the doors himself while the other two debated. "Perhaps, but a robot that fires on impervious doors may des– damage itself, no matter how superior it is. These aren't wood, you know." He pointed to a spot near the stone floor where the wooden façade had been chipped away. He tapped a gloved finger against the underlying material, which produced a sound more like granite than the metal it was. "Adamantine. Heavy, but far, far stronger than steel, or even titanium. You blast these doors, Omega, and I don't think any of us will be here when the guards show up. But the doors will. Although, the wood may need replacing after that."

The robot was silent, but he let his arms drop to his sides. Rouge, staring at the massive doors, didn't seem to notice that she'd won the argument. "Adamantine...," her voice was practically a whisper. Then, a bit louder, "Shadow, do you have any idea what that much adamantine is _worth_?"

"As of fifty years ago, about three-point-eight million dollars." The number came easily out of the depths of his mind. "Now? I have no idea. There was a small chamber in the ARK, lined with about that much adamantine. The researchers used it to test small weapons. And explosive devices. Nothing made a mark on it."

He looked around. "All the other flagstones are irregular, but that patch over there looks awfully straight-edged. Perhaps we should check that out?"

"Hmmmm? Oh, yes," Rouge blinked and refocused. Kneeling beside the squared patch, she announced, "Good eye, Shadow, it's a trapdoor. Let me see..." A moment later the flagstones dropped away, hinged on one side. "Long way down," she commented as she stood back up.

"There seem to be a lot of those," said Shadow with resignation. He held up his hands to her again, and they dropped through the door. The world jerked sideways as Rouge yelped - and Omega's crimson bulk fell past them to land with a jarring crash on the floor below.

"I've got to admit, he is a lot better constructed than most of Eggman's robots," said Rouge, sounding a bit annoyed. "Any of the Egg pawns would be about half an inch tall after a drop like that. I just wish he'd warned me, first."

Shadow smirked, keeping his head down so she wouldn't see. "Consider it a compliment," he suggested. "Omega assumes that you're smart enough to know he has to get down, so he expects you'll give him room to do so."

The bat growled and let go, dropping the black hedgehog the few remaining feet. Shadow smirked again, pleased to have scored on her, for once. The cellar, or whatever it was, was a small round room with a single floor-level exit. Through a stone arch was another of the metal spheres. Omega extracted one foot from a crack in the flagstone beneath him and clomped over to it. "Gravity reversal device present," declared the robot. "Recommendation: touch item with caution."

As Shadow and the bat joined him, however, the mech reached out and rapped the sphere sharply, with no particular caution evident. Instantly the three shot towards the ceiling. Which was now the floor and, specifically, was the underside of a corridor of some sort. The corridor appeared to be thickest in the center and narrow towards the edges, giving the feel that the three were standing on a peaked roof. As before, they found themselves flipped before landing. Shadow stepped up on the metal-capped peak and began to slide. He wasn't sure where he was going, but there was only one direction, really, the visible end of the corridor abutted a wall. He shook his head at the teeth-shaking screech of metal on metal that told him Omega was imitating him.

Rouge sighed and stepped cautiously onto the rail herself. _This is going to ruin these boots_, she thought ruefully. The pointed ridge at the corridor's nadir was very different from the squarish rails the boots had been designed for. Ah, well, the business part - the metal toe picks - could be transferred easily enough to a new pair. _It's not like the desert and the swamp haven't done a number on them already... I probably couldn't have salvaged them anyway_, she consoled herself as she pushed off to slide after the guys. Keeping one eye on the robot's backplate, she considered the status of her mission_. So... one neat stash of gems from the casino on the plus side, but no real progress linking Robotnik and Eggman on the minus. And the ruination of a useful pair of boots. But I did get off a warning about that 'secret' fleet that GUN's been tracking; that it really does belong to Eggman. Of course, who __**else **__would make a fleet of humongous, fish-shaped aircraft?_ That bit of info had actually been in the Piscine Islands base, and she'd called it in before she went hunting for Eggman's treasure. A treasure that turned out to be Shadow, in stasis. _Well, Eggman won't be getting much cooperation from him in the future, not if I'm any judge. And Shadow's been pretty useful on this little journey, when he's not fretting about his past. _She frowned slightly. _That robotic copy... Down to the fur and quills even. I wonder if I could get Shadow into a med center for X-rays or something. That'd be the easiest way to prove yea or nay. Although he doesn't act like a robot - who ever heard of an android sulking over a lack of memory? Or having nightmares?_

That still bothered her a bit. Not Shadow's having _had _the nightmare, but her feeling so... concerned about him having it. _That time I was working with that sniper, the weasel, what was his name? I wouldn't have cared if he'd had a nightmare, as long as it didn't hinder his doing his part of the job. _She hadn't particularly liked Fang (yes, that was the name: Fang, alias Nack) but she'd had to admit he was a good professional. He'd been hired by the government to perform a side task while she'd been obtaining information from a certain organization's computers and paper files. He'd worked as part of her team to get in and out, done his job while she did hers, then taken his pay and been gone. _Except for his not-at-all-subtle hints about adding me as a bonus to his pay– Drat these things!_

The last thought was directed at a group of armor-plated searchlight planes. She flitted forward and knocked them out of the sky for Omega to dismantle. Just beyond them a double row of torches hung in apparently thin air. A corner of her mouth quirked at the sight of Shadow poking at the air near the closest one, just like when she'd seen him testing the energy path. It wasn't so much someone trying to remember something they'd forgotten as a child investigating something new. She frowned again as she stepped out onto what was really an invisible path. _Shadow is useful now, but once he gets his memory back he won't be nearly so malleable. Actually, he'll probably be rather dangerous to be around once it's generally known that he survived; the president may have declared him a national hero along with Sonic, but there are some people who remember that he __**caused **__the ARK to plunge to Earth - or helped cause it - more than they remember his stopping it. And there are surely those in GUN who will want to retrieve their weapon._ That bothered her too; she valued her own freedom enough that it disturbed her to think of any person being considered mere property. And many agents, including herself, were essentially weapons due to their training, even if none of them had been initially _designed _as such_. It would be a very bad idea for the military or the government to generally accept the idea of people as owned weapons. Hmm, I wonder if I could get him hired as a government agent? He'd be safe from GUN then, and civilian censure, and he could assist me on some of my missions, perhaps. And spying or soldiering are accepted job paths for people trained to be weapons. Though I doubt he'd work for GUN even if the President __**could **__get them to hire him. _

That interesting train of thought ended as they found another orb, and flipped over again. This time they were running back along the path they'd slid down the underside of earlier. Huge blades swung back and forth threateningly, but too high overhead to be an actual menace. There were a plethora of red banners with a single flaming eye emblazoned on each, and skull patterns in the tiles on the tower roofs. She was eyeing the matching skull-like designs on the blades when something materialized in front of her with a cackle of laughter. She dodged automatically, and Omega's fist passed through a jack o' lantern head above a purple-cloaked rib cage. _Ghosts? So it's not just Egg pawns haunting the castle, then._ That was... interesting.

The sun had completely set by now, but there was no problem with visibility; in addition to the torches that lit their path, the gibbous moon glowed brilliantly overhead. The comet that had been in the news recently blazed silently on the horizon, although the stars were dimmed to invisibility by the moon's light. After the next batch of guards were defeated, the two dokan paused for a breather. Omega stood an impatient watch while they gasped for air.

Shadow recovered first and moved over to the still-panting Rouge. "I thought you said Doctor Eggman used the Eclipse Cannon to blow up the moon?" he asked.

She nodded and straightened up. "He did. But he didn't blow the whole thing up; only about a third was damaged. And while some of the bits blasted off into space, and some fell rather spectacularly to Earth, a lot of them sort of stuck around because of the gravitational pull. Then someone dug up Professor Gerald's old plans for the rock shield on the ARK, and the governments of the world actually got together and built one on the moon. Basically, it's a force field that holds the rocks that were already there in place, while attracting and collecting additional rock fragments. The field itself is invisible, so what you see up there is the light reflecting of the moon's rocks as always, and it's far enough away that you can't see how irregular the edges are now. It's still a mess through a telescope though, or even a pair of good binoculars. There was a lot of chaos at first because of the tides shifting from the changed lunar mass, but it seems to have settled down, and the rock shield's attraction is gradual enough that it won't cause any sudden large changes." They moved on after Omega, who had moved ahead impatiently while the organic units reoxygenated themselves. The path rounded a corner and widened into a sort of cul-de-sac.

Rouge stopped short. "What's with this _ugly _statue!"

Shadow silently agreed. It was a massive stone image of Eggman from the waist up, waving his hands in the air. It almost resembled a genie, with the lower body trailing away in spikes instead of the traditional smoke plume. A pair of torches at waist level gave it an even more macabre appearance due to the stark shadows they created. The moon, shining overhead, was unable to soften the image. A double line of peaked roofs surmounted by bare flagpoles stretched between the statue and their position. Directly in front of them, another metal globe was set in the center of the path, this time in some sort of cage.

The robot wasn't distracted by the... art. Cutting to the point, he announced, "Rouge, there is a target switch. Can you hit it?"

Rouge had just spotted the object herself and wondered what it was - a target-marked disk suspended in midair off the edge of the platform they stood on. "Shadow? Are you any good at target shooting?"

The black hedgehog allowed himself to be picked up and flung again, this time at a bull's-eye rather than an enemy. Spinning the disk made the bars around the globe recede into its pedestal. Shadow waved at it and looked at Rouge. "Shall I do the honors, or will you?"

"Be my guest," said the bat, glancing up to be certain there was a surface overhead to land on.

Shadow reached out and patted the globe. This time it had the dual effect of flipping the world and causing a set of guards to appear. And another target, they saw as soon as the Eggpawns were defeated. As Shadow landed after being flung at this switch, he was appalled at the change in the statue. Upside down, what should have been the lower half of Eggman's body was revealed instead to be the face of a rather evil-looking hedgehog, that bore a strong resemblance to Shadow himself. The torches at Eggman's belt actually burned in this image's eye sockets. There was an ominous-looking hole in the center of the chest.

Staring at the unsettling image, Shadow swallowed hard. In response to the target-shoot an additional flagpole was rising from the path, in line with the poles on the now upside-down towers. Dragging his attention from the statue, Shadow considered the layout a moment, then pulled off one of his tornado spins, jumping to spin himself around the pole in front of him. Using the tornado's vortex as a booster he jumped between and swung once around each of the lined-up flagpoles in succession and then into a cave-like niche in the center of the dual statue.

It turned out to be the entrance to a short tunnel. Once Rouge had hauled Omega across - having used Shadow's tornado as a booster herself - they walked through it. Stepping out the other end, they dropped down into a familiar gatehouse - only now the massive adamantine gates stood wide open.


	12. The Spooky Old Castle

11. The Spooky Old... Castle

"Inside the castle," said Shadow, as they stepped onto a floor tiled in purple bats. It was a rather obvious remark, but he was trying to distract himself from the image of the reversed statue. _It looked like a darker version of me. Was that what that robot was supposed to be? It didn't have that spike-like nose that the statue did, but neither do I. Surely it wasn't a statue of me? _

Rouge matched his inane comment with one of her own. "Sure is spooky in here." She rubbed her arms lightly; outside had still held some of the residual day-time heat from the swamp, but inside the air was not only cooler but had a clammy feel.

Omega, of course was as to-the-point as always. "Initiating interior search" he declared.

Shadow looked around. Above the tiled floor, the walls were decorated in a skeletal-arms-and-skulls motif. An ornate chandelier dangled from the ceiling. A pair of staircases led up to a balcony, one flight on either side of the room. Between the companions and the steps, however, was one of the enormous hammer-wielding giants. Omega charged forward, fists swinging. Shadow had to admit, there was good basis for the robot's superiority complex. Although the giant was three times the height of the E-series robot, and armed with a hammer larger than its opponent's entire form, the red robot pummeled the thing to scrap before it managed to pound the ground twice.

"Remind me not to get on his bad side," said Rouge softly to the black hedgehog as they advanced. As Rouge and Omega went up the stairs, Shadow paused to look at the wall behind where the giant had stood.

"Whale Island," he said softly to himself. He did still remember that island, and how he'd gotten there from the hidden base. _Those turtles with the stone platforms on their shells. _It was the getting _to _the hidden base in the first place he couldn't recall. He ran up the left-hand set of stairs as he heard the doors on the balcony creak open. "Cheerful decor," he commented to Rouge, eyeing the buck-toothed skulls embossed on the open doors. She snorted in agreement and trotted down the hall. At the end was a large, circular chamber with no doors in the wall except the pair they had entered through. However, there was a circular dais in the center of the room, just beyond another caged globe, and it had a pair of doors sitting on top of it. A skeleton - evidently the model for the bosses on the doors - ducked out of sight behind the door as they entered. For once, however, Omega did NOT greet a new being with his usual 'Death to Eggman's robots' cry.

Curious, Shadow dashed forward and looked behind the doors. There was no sign of the skeleton, and no room or shaft behind the doors - he'd thought they might be the top of an elevator or something. The doorframe just was mounted on the dais by itself, dividing the platform in two while the doors were closed. Shadow stepped up on the dais behind the doors and peeked back through a keyhole. He saw Omega trying to pry the bars off the sphere in front of the door they'd come in by. A rather chilling cackle beside him made him jump, but it wasn't the skeleton he'd expected; instead it was one of the pumpkin-headed ghosts materializing to circle the dais. As it passed him, he saw a switch in the floor near his feet. He flipped it, and heard the cage in front of the doors open.

Shadow followed the ghost back around to the front. Omega looked up and saw the ghost. "Doesn't compute," he announced as he stepped forward and swung a hand through the jack o' lantern skull. The ghost faded out without seeming to have noticed. "Illogical," finished the robot.

"You think that's illogical? Look at this," said Rouge. She'd touched the globe and not the doors on the dais were open. What was revealed was not the far side of the room, but another short hallway leading to a larger room that appeared to be some sort of gallery.

Shadow blinked at the sight, then looked behind the doors again, _around _the frame instead of through it. From the back they were still closed, and nothing had changed. He stepped cautiously forward, walking across behind them and around the other side. Then he reached though the doorway from the front, and sure enough, there was a hall there. The doors were open only from one side and went somewhere other than through the frame. Perplexed, the hedgehog looked at Rouge.

She, however, didn't seem concerned. Whether she'd seen this sort of thing before or just didn't care, Shadow couldn't tell, but Rouge merely stepped up on the dais and walked down the hall. He followed. Omega came behind him, objecting to the hallway. "Error, this structure not previously evident. It is impossible for it to be here."

"Don't say that too loudly," warned Shadow, not too comfortable with the enigma himself, "it might hear you and agree." Rouge heard him and giggled.

Shadow stepped into the gallery beside her and saw robots moving away from where they'd been posed along the wall. The Egg pawns were the same as always, but there was also an odd-looking robot that appeared to be some sort of wizard. Whether it could do any magic, he didn't know, but it hovered in mid air and periodically produced some odd sort of whistle. Once the battle began, it quickly became clear that this note enabled the other robots to fight past the point they should have been junk. However, it didn't prevent the wizard robot from being smashed into junk itself, and as soon as Shadow dealt the final blow to it, the controlled Egg pawns dropped where they stood. Warily eyeing the quartet of marble Egg pawn statues that still lined the walls, the trio climbed three steps to a triptych of massive oil paintings... and another silver sphere.

"Sure is a mysterious switch," said Rouge. "They seem to trigger all sorts of things."

"Triggering this switch is unpredictable," agreed Omega, and did so.

"Whoa!" cried Shadow, doing a high-speed back flip. He'd been investigating the odd paintings, curious about the robotic subjects' very realistic, metallic gleam - and now the robots popped out of the paintings almost on top of him. The spike-shield carrying Egg pawns were heavy enough, but the central painting had been of one of the giants. He did _not _want to get caught under those feet!

"Does not compute; illogical," said Omega again, with almost a whine in his artificial voice.

"Compute later," ordered Rouge, "fight now!" She took wing to avoid the giant's ponderous hammer swing. Shadow used his tornado move on the shield-bearing robots and found that it not only de-shielded them, it picked one of them up and smashed it. Rouge's screw kick finished the other one. Turning in unison towards the giant, they saw that Omega had already put it out of commission, having followed the bat's command.

And from there things just got weirder. Doctor Eggman may have been a scientific and mechanical genius, but any technology here was cloaked in mysticism. Except the robots, of course. The skulls-and-bones theme carried through to the lights (either skeletal-hand torches or skull-shaped lamps); a giant, moving statue of a skeleton that conveyed the three up a few stories; and a giant fan that boosted them up to yet another level (made of three blades that looked like skeletal hands). They reached the skeleton statue right after having taken a trolley down into some caves and back up again. Beyond the statue, and the fan, was another art gallery, and this time it _was _the statues that came to life and attacked. Past them, a wide staircase lead up to a duplicate of the entrance hall, complete with giant robot. This one however, wore a helmet and better armor, and its only weak point turned out to be the top of its head. Omega knocked it off balance, Rouge swooped in to snatch off the helmet, and Shadow homed in on its vulnerable spot.

Battle over, the black hedgehog sat down for a minute on the edge of a small pool between the stairs, ignoring the cackling ghost that appeared. The pool was one of two differences between the upstairs hall and the one downstairs. Trailing his fingers in the water, he looked up at the skylight that was the other difference. _Huh, more skulls_, he thought as he looked at the pattern. The nearly full moon pouring in through the stained glass spread a pastel version of the images across the bat-marked floor. Rouge was similarly seated, although on the steps; Omega had already clumped up to the balcony and was checking out the next hall. Shadow looked over at the bat, who was in a rather contorted posture as she tried to rub her right shoulder blade - or maybe her right wing - with her left hand. "Are you all right?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes," she glanced back at him a moment. "I've just strained a muscle or something, I think. It'll be okay; it's just going to be _really _sore tomorrow."

"I haven't seen anything particularly scientific or even modern except the robots," he pointed out. "Are you sure that this is one of Doctor Eggman's bases?"

"Well, the Egg pawns and other mechs themselves are proof enough. You're right though, there don't seem to be any computers or anything around here. I'm wondering if this is a storage facility or something for excess mechs, or if we've just missed wherever the actual data store is." She sighed, looking momentarily defeated. "This whole mission seems to be one false trail after another."

_False trail, and a false hedgehog_, thought Shadow. _Am I– _

"That's not what I meant!" said Rouge sharply. "I know what you're thinking, it's written all over your face... and if it helps, I've _never _seen a robot or an android with that much sophistication."

"Android? Isn't an android the same as a robot?" his memory seemed to say it was and it wasn't, but he couldn't remember the difference, if any.

"Ooohhh boy,"said the bat, shaking her head. "Come on, let's keep moving before Omega blows a fuse–"

"This unit does not use fuses," interjected the robot above them. "However this delay will give Eggman the opportunity to flee or prepare new defenses."

"–and I'll explain as we go," finished Rouge, as she stood up. Shadow joined her in climbing the stairs to the balcony.

"Frequently, 'robot' and 'android' are used interchangeably," she said. "A lot of people don't know that they don't necessarily mean the same thing. Technically, an android is supposed to be human in shape, while a robot can be any mechanical construct that moves in response to a computer program. In classic science fiction though, there are three categories of artificial life. Cyborgs are a bit of a stretch for the definition, actually, as they often start as real, living organisms but have mechanical enhancements - from a person with a mechanical arm, or an implanted weapon, or even just a knee replacement - on up to a complete robot body with a live brain. Androids are sort of the reverse, they have a mechanical brain, and varying degrees of organic components; usually, the skeleton as well as the brain is artificial, but in some stories the entire organism is cloned or grown except for the brain. Robots, of course, are entirely mechanical, although they may be made to simulate living organisms... like that fake Eggman in the Egg Hawk. All the parts there were metal or plastic. Really, everything I know of Eggman making before this has been robots." There was a long pause. They seemed to be in some sort of maze of skeleton-themed corridors. Omega stamped on ahead, unconcerned about the discussion behind him.

"Except for that fake Shadow," Rouge said finally. "That... that was at least partly robotic, but... it _could _have been an android in the classic sense. The skin and fur might have been real, cloned tissue from– " she stopped suddenly, not sure how to finish her sentence.

"–from the original Shadow," her companion concluded. "Which may or may not be me." The red eyes looked over at the bat's turquoise ones, troubled. "I need to find Doctor Eggman and get the truth from him."

"Yes," she agreed as they turned into a third gallery with statues and paintings on display. "But that might be easier said then done. Remember that Eggman has no compunctions about lying if he thinks it will serve his purposes. He's done it in the past. If he thinks a lie will gain him more than the truth - or if you threaten him and he thinks you'll respond better to a lie than the truth - then he'll look you in the eye and tell you whatever he thinks you want to hear. Which might be the truth, or a half-truth, or a complete fabrication.

"Um... You know, you could come back with me when this is over, and I could have the government doctors check you over - that would be the fastest way to tell if you're a robot–"

"But there's a third option," said Shadow. "They could tell me if I'm a robot, or an android... but could they tell me if I'm a clone? Not a mechanically-brained android clone, but a whole flesh-and-blood one? If the real Shadow died when he fell to Earth, and Doctor Eggman just recovered the body..."

Rouge was silent for a few moments, not looking at him. "I don't know," she said at last. "I don't know how you'd know if you were a clone or not, especially since Professor Gerald created Shadow from modified embryo and grew him - you - in the same kind of tank they use for cloning. I just... don't have an answer for you."

Shadow was looking away himself. Finally he gave himself a shake and said, "Shall we tackle a problem we can solve instead? Statues or paintings, do you think?" He held a hand over the gallery's sphere.

Rouge struck a mock-thoughtful pose. "Paintings again. We fought the statues last time." She put a hand on Shadow's, pressing down so that he touched the curved metal.

As it happened, this time is was both. After deactivating the resultant robots, the trio discovered a door hidden behind a now-vacant painting. Soon after, they came upon another mine cart. This one, after a brief but wild ride, hit a laser barricade and fell apart, leaving the trio to grind along the rails until they located another car to ride in. Rouge and Omega climbed in and Shadow pushed it along until it had enough speed to coast, then hopped in behind them. Another set of tracks joined them from an adjacent gallery, with several armored rhino-bots patrolling it. When they opened fire, Omega fired back and knocked them off the rails. At the end of the ride, a skeletal hand gave warning to abandon car and switch tracks as the one they'd been riding simply dead-ended in mid cavern.


	13. A Gem of Great Worth

12. A Gem of Great Worth

Shadow and his comrades leaped to the safer rail, and were flipped off the end onto a stone bridge. Well, half a stone bridge; ahead of them was another pair of doors, with a few supply crates piled around it, and behind them the bridge simply ended mid-span. Noting the apparently bottomless pit below, Shadow and Rouge moved promptly forward to the more solid rock in front of the door. Omega, unconcerned by the potential drop, clomped slowly behind them. Two of the skeletal hand-torches stood near the door, both unlit. The door itself was closed and apparently locked. While Shadow and Omega investigated the crates, looking for a hidden switch, Rouge flitted upwards to check out some ledges above the door. Finding nothing, the bat perched on one of the unlit torches as she dropped back down.

Shadow smashed the last crate. No switch, button, or other opening device, but there were five rings hidden inside it, and a small key that seemed to be made of the same, peculiar substance. When he picked it up, though, it felt somehow more... intense... than the rings, more real, somehow. He pocketed the key for further investigation. Then he caught the rings up, feeling some of his weariness lift as he did so, and walked to stand under Rouge's perch. "Something interesting about those torches?"

"Well," said Rouge, rubbing a finger across the top surface and grimacing at the soot her glove picked up, "they've been lit in the past, but not recently. Other than that, how many unlit torches have we seen around this castle?"

Shadow frowned slightly as he considered. "One or two, I think, after one of my tornado moves...but the winds would have put them out. And a couple of the ones outside..." He realized suddenly what the bat was getting at. "You think we need to light the torches?"

"Yep." Rouge caught the edge of the 'skeletal' palm and back flipped to the ground. "Hey Omega, could you give us a light?" She smirked as Shadow groaned at the pun. Then she jumped back from the torch so fast she collided with him, as a gout of flame whooshed past her. "Hey! I wanted the torch lit, not me, you overgrown eggbeater!"

Shadow steadied her, and glared at the robot himself. Omega simply fired at the other torch, having set the first one alight. "Affirmative. Lighting the torches appears to be the correct method for entry." He thudded past the irritated dokan and through the open door. "Error! This unit unable to move."

Shadow and Rouge moved forward to see one of the orange wizard robots with two dark purple companions, similar in design except for the color of their robes. One had a staff upraised and appeared to be holding Omega in place while draining the E-series robot's energy.

Shadow launched himself at the red wizard first, remembering that model's ability to control other mechs past their self-motivating points. It shattered most satisfactorily - his aim was certainly back to normal - but instead of landing he found himself suspended in midair, and could feel his own energy leaking away. It was the most appalling sensation he could remember, and as he tried to struggle he realized he couldn't even move! He'd barely had time to register that though before he landed painfully on his left heel, lost his balance, and fell over. He looked up in time to duck as Rouge planted a kick in the neck region of the robot controlling Omega and literally knocked its head off, making the unit explode. Belatedly he realized that the second purple wizard must have trapped him in the same fashion. _Does that mean I AM a robot?_

"Nasty little trick, that," commented Rouge, bending over to pick up one of the purple staffs. "Look here, Shadow," her thumb slid a small switch back and forth as she held the staff for him to see, "this switch toggles between robotic and organic controls. This will probably earn me a nice bonus when I turn it in." She tucked the staff into her belt. Shadow wished he knew what the staff had been set on when she'd picked it up... but didn't quite dare to ask. _She may not have noticed the initial setting anyway_, he assured himself, and knew he was lying.

"Oh joy," the bat continued. "Another gaze ball."

"I suppose it will awaken that pair," said Shadow glumly, eyeing the marble Egg pawn statues that flanked the etched sphere. Beyond the statues and sphere yawned a deep pit, too wide to see across.

"Probably," agreed Rouge, sounding about as happy about it as he did. "Ready?" She held out a hand. Shadow took up a battle stance on one side of her as Omega did the same on the other. Rouge tapped the silver ball lightly with a finger and jumped back and...

Nothing happened. Shadow relaxed slightly, then straightened up. Nothing continued to happen. He looked at Rouge and Omega and they looked back at him, Rouge clearly as puzzled as the dark hedgehog.

"Aural sensors detect noise," declared Omega suddenly at the same time as Rouge twitched her ears and began staring around. Almost immediately the low rumbling became audible to Shadow as well.

"Look," he said sharply, pointing at a puff of dust near the left wall.

"It's over here, too," said the bat, looking past Omega to the right wall. "Shadow, I think they're moving."

Shadow glanced back and forth between the walls, then focused on one of them. "You're right. The doctor must have some other way to get past here, though; I don't think this machinery has had to work for a long time." Slowly, but with increasing speed, the walls of the pit were coming together. As one, the travelers stepped back, but the walls where they were weren't moving, just the ones of the pit itself. There was no way to get behind them, Shadow noted; they stretched back to their origin unbroken.

And then the walls ground to a halt, the pit now only about five feet wide. Rouge stepped forward, hesitated, then flew a short way between them. "Hey Shadow," she called back, "there's some sort of rope or something attached to the back edges that goes on across." He saw her form, pale against the darkness, drop and apparently stand on something he couldn't see. She bounced up and down a few times, and called again, "I think it's strong enough for Omega, even. Shall I come get you?"

"No need," the hedgehog called back. He gauged his distance, then leapt at the closest wall as hard as he could, pushing up, forward, and off the instant his hands and feet made contact, and twisting so that he hit the opposite wall in the same fashion. His speed and strength were enough to counter gravity for a little while, long enough (he thought) to get to where Rouge was. And then he was there; instead of pushing off again he slid down the wall to stand on something that looked like a silk rope. Grinning at the expression on Rouge's face, he explained, "Just a little trick I learned on the ARK. Most of my practice was done in lower gravity of course, as it was a practical way to move in weightless environments."

A crashing noise behind him suggested that Omega was banging his own handholds into the walls again, and shortly the robot did come hand-walking along the wall. The robot clamped his feet on the rope without the pale material bowing in the slightest. _Whatever it is, it's not silk. Silk's strong, but not enough to hold Omega's weight without giving at least a little._ With a shrug the hedgehog pushed away from the wall and slid to the end of the ropes. There, a chain of rings allowed access to a guarded room with a covered well. The skeleton, which he'd glimpsed several times now, made another quick disappearance as they closed with the guards. Finding no apparent exit, Omega smashed the cover of the well with a single blow.

Shadow and Rouge looked down the well, then at each other. With a groan, Shadow held out his hands again. Rouge grinned and hoisted him over and down.

"What on Earth?" Shadow agreed with Rouge's sentiment as he stared around the new... room? The gray walls appeared to be made of water or some other rippling liquid, reflecting light from an invisible source. The floor was the same; although it felt flat, it didn't look it, making a it very unsettling place to stand. A dead black rectangle in one wall possibly marked an exit. Looking up, Shadow could see no indication of their original entry point.

Suddenly the room was swarming with pumpkin-headed ghosts. Before they appeared though, the trio had spotted three switches on the floor. By common consent they spread out, swatting ghosts as they went, until each stood by a switch. At Rouge's command, they flipped them, and a line of rings gleamed beautifully golden against the blackness of the exit. Shadow skated forward, caught Rouge and Omega by the hand, and pulled them forward and up... to another liquid-walled room.

This time, though, they stood on a small wooden platform with a caged globe, and three boardwalks led out to smaller platforms with additional, but uncaged, globes. Looking down, the reflections confused any estimation of distance, but Shadow was certain they had a long drop below them if they stepped off the platforms. In fact the feel of the space around them was enormous, in contrast to the room they'd just left which had felt cramped.

"Detecting three altars," announced Omega.

"What _is _this place?" wondered Rouge.

"Guess they wanted to challenge us," answered Shadow, stepping out onto the first of the three paths. "Do you suppose there's one right trigger and two wrong ones, or something to do at all three altars?"

"I'm not sure," said the bat thoughtfully. "You take that one, I'll go up the middle and Omega can get the path on the right. Don't touch anything; let's just take a look at what's there."

"Right." Shadow continued along the rough boards to the platform at the end. A pair of globes sat on the 'altar', one glowing from within and one dark. Looking over, he could see Rouge studying her own altar - the twin of his - with her chin cupped in one hand. Omega... he couldn't see much beyond Rouge; the glittery ripple effect of the space made it difficult to see clearly over long distances. He did see Rouge suddenly snap her head up and to the right, then turn her back to him entirely as she took a step in the direction of the robot. One hand reached before her, then dropped to her side.

Shadow jumped to the edge of his own platform. "Rouge!" he called. When she didn't respond he called again, louder. She turned around and looked at him, but he wasn't sure if she'd heard him or not. Catching his eye, she jerked her head back towards the main platform. Nodding, he skated back up the boardwalk to meet her.

"Did you see?" she asked as she joined him. "Omega touched the lit sphere and he and the altar just vanished!"

Shadow shook his head. "I couldn't see anything very well past your platform," he answered, "this light, or whatever, plays tricks."

"Oh. Well I saw it clearly enough. He touched the dark sphere and nothing happened. I was trying to call to him to not touch anything, but he reached out and touched the one that was lit up- and just disappeared, along with the altar."

Shadow looked up the boardwalk; from here he could see the platform Omega had been on and, as Rouge said, the altar had vanished. Even as he registered its absence, however, it reappeared, along with the robot. Omega looked around and came back up to join the dokan. "Contact with sphere triggers dimensional transport. Defeating enemies at terminus permits activation of second sphere and return."

Rouge and Shadow looked at each other a moment and then, in mutual agreement, headed back down their respective paths. Reaching the altar a second time, Shadow touched the lit sphere...and it went dark as the liquid space around him turned blue.

At the same time, his sharp hearing picked up the faint hum of robotic engines, and he spun to put the altar at his back. Two orange-robed wizards hovered in midair, and a pair of spear-carrying Eggpawns were crowded onto the small platform in front of him. The boardwalk had vanished with the gray-lit void.

The Egg pawns were no problem at all - cramped by the lack of floor space, neither could get a good strike at him, and the wizards' control abilities were useless when their intended controlees were plummeting into void. Shadow simply bull-rushed the spear-bots off the edge of the platform, then leapt up to tackle the wizards. As the last flash of orange disappeared amid blue reflections, the sphere that had been initially dark lit up. He brushed his glove across the top and the blue returned to grey and the boardwalk returned. He noted both Rouge and the altar were missing from the next platform, but by the time he'd rejoined Omega on the main platform, she was back. The cage around the main sphere had regressed the instant she returned. She pressed a palm against the sphere as she joined them and the world changed again.

For a moment Shadow thought they were back outside, only somehow time had jumped from late night to midday. Then he realized the extensive green fields and forests were painted on walls beneath a domed blue ceiling with an artificial sun. The threesome and their sphere-bearing platform were now floating on the surface of a dark lake, whose rippling surface reflected the false sunlight in a manner that bore remarkable resemblance to the void they had just left. A final boardwalk stretched from their platform across the water to a door in the wall of a painted tower. As Shadow started to step towards it though, he felt something strange. He looked around, then realized it was from the key he'd picked up. He pulled it out, and as soon as the sunlight hit it they were again somewhere else. And a blaze of violet shot past them with a surge of the most exhilarating power he'd ever felt.

"It's a Chaos Emerald,"gasped Rouge behind him, but he was already running. He had to catch the source of that intoxicating power. Dimly he was aware that both the bat and the robot were following, but he paid them no heed as he ran through a field of multicolored bubbles. They burst when he touched them with the same energy surge the rings granted and he used that energy to increase his speed. Gradually, the initial compulsion lessened, and he became more aware of his surroundings.

The stream of bubbles swung from side to side along the inner surface of a vast, tubular force field. The Chaos Emerald was traveling down the center of this tube and no longer pulling away; he'd managed to match paces with it. Beyond the force field, all was pitch blackness with no glimmer of light to suggest anything beyond but true void, unlike the rippling space they'd been in before. Shadow increased his pace further, running faster than he had since he'd awakened two days earlier, and began to finally close the gap between him and the Emerald. As if in response, black, spiky spheres began to appear in places along the tube, forcing him to dodge among them as he followed the weaving bubble trail. Occasionally, more powerful bubbles appeared, in stronger colors that flashed with golden light and gave his speed an extra boost. And now the Emerald was finally in sight: a large, purple gem cut in the classic 'brilliant' shape, containing a light that pulsed and shifted in time with the power he could feel within it. The color shifted as well, from indigo to nearly red and back, passing through every shade of purple imaginable. And he could... almost... He threw everything he had and everything he was getting from the bubbles into his running and jumped up... and snagged the Chaos Emerald out of the air.

As soon as he touched it, the power flared one last time and they were back on the lake under the false sun. Shadow could hear Rouge gasping for breath as he looked down at the gem in his hands. The light was dimmer now, faint as foxfire in the sun's glare, but still slowly shifting along the purple spectrum. The power seemed to be going into a more dormant state, releasing its pull on him, although he knew it would respond at once if he tapped it. And he knew that he _could _tap it. _This is something I was designed for. The Chaos Emeralds _- there were seven in total, he knew automatically - _and Chaos control. The Emeralds concentrate the same power that I use, and focus it for more precise application._ He shivered slightly at the heady thought of that much power and flexibility at his command. But it was an enormous relief to be certain of something for a change. _My homing attacks, my speed - both of these tie in somehow to the same power this gem holds. _But clearly that power was capable of much more.


	14. Another Battle and Another Dream

13. Another Battle and Another Dream

Shadow pulled himself out of his fascination and put the gem away; this was one treasure he did not intend to hand over to Rouge. As soon as the bat had caught her breath, he walked up the boardwalk to the painted tower and opened the door in it. Beyond was a dim balcony. Shadow stepped through the door and realized he was back outside, where it was still night. The oblate moon was shifting to an orange color as it dropped towards the horizon, and was far dimmer than the artificial sun inside the tower he'd just stepped out of. The strange, elongated star he'd noticed earlier was barely visible on the horizon. As his eyes adjusted, he could just make out a caged sphere on the stone balustrade that surrounded the balcony. As he approached the railing he heard the faint keen of repulsor lifts approaching. He looked up to see the now-familiar, egg-shaped hovercraft weaving between the peaked roofs towards them.

"What do you think Omega?" he asked as the robot joined him.

The red eyes swung back and forth as the mech ran his internal checks. "Sensors jammed," Omega declared finally. "Real Eggman ID not possible."

Shadow hissed in frustration, but Rouge responded, "We'll just have to find out, won't we?"

The doctor halted his craft a few feet away, beyond the edge of the balcony. "What's the matter, cold feet?" he taunted the trio. "Well then, here I come." His voice dropped about thirty degrees as he finished with, "Get them." A veritable fleet of plane-bots rose over the edge of the balcony.

"No time for messing around," said Shadow. "Let's get ready."

"Okay." Rouge was poised to take wing.

"I am ready," agreed Omega, as his hands disappeared into his wrists and were replaced by gun barrels.

And the attack began. Shadow bounced his way up one side of the planes' formation while Rouge spun and kicked her way through the middle and Omega blasted the far side. The plane-bots were followed by a flight of small bird-shaped jets that dropped a giant from their midst. Omega blasted that one, too, while Rouge decommissioned the circling planes. Next a team of wizard robots rose from below and gave their support to a corps of gold-plated Egg pawns that streamed through another door onto the balcony. When those had been defeated, the cage opened with a clack to free the silver sphere. Shadow kept an eye on Eggman as Rouge touched the polished globe, and saw the hovercraft flip in tandem with his own group. But there was no time to contemplate that, as they dropped into the center of a ring of gold turtles - each with its cannon already aimed at the intruders!

Shadow thrust the hand with the Chaos Emerald forward and yelled "Chaos Control!" Everything froze around him. He looked at the gem in his hand in surprise. _How did the Emerald get there? I put it away. And how did I know to do that? _ He looked back and forth at his companions and made a slight mental adjustment. Whatever he was doing to control time -_ and surely it's only a local effect? _- they were suddenly freed from it. Rouge staggered slightly and looked around in bewilderment, while Omega single-mindedly began blasting the turtles. Rouge blinked and joined in the attack as Shadow started striking the gold-plated reptiles himself. Once they were destroyed, he looked regretfully over at the doctor - who was well out of reach - and ended the time-freeze. More robots were whisked in by more bird-jets, and the battle continued. Not sure how long he could hold time still - or how often he could repeat the maneuver - Shadow opted to fight in the normal fashion until three of the energy-draining purple mages arrived in conjunction with a pair of the armored giants. Then he called upon the Emerald again and permitted his team to fight unopposed. Frozen in time, the robots were crushed like dry leaves. As the seconds began to slip past again, he heard the doctor's howl of outrage; the human might not have caught what happened the first time, but this time he'd seen his robots essentially vanish, going from intact to scrap without even an eye-blink. But now the cage on the edge of their current battlefield opened - to reveal a small cannon. Rouge groaned at the sight.

"Well," Shadow pointed out, "at least this time there's no capsule." He dodged as she aimed a fist at him, and vaulted into the open end of the barrel. BAM! He was sent hurtling through the air in a long arc, tumbling neatly as he landed to finish on his feet. Rouge joined him, tumbling almost as neatly, then Omega crash-landed beside them. The enemy robots began arriving as the E-series robot got back to his feet. Several rounds later, they got a breathing space again, and sure enough, there was another globe gleaming on the arena's rim. The Egg-mobile still circled at a distance, the doctor hurling threats and curses at them. Omega rapped one of his gun barrels against the metal, and again the arena was flipped, this time back to right-side up. And more battle ensued.

"Doctor!" Shadow cried, "Stop this senseless fight!"

"You've underestimated us, haven't you?" Rouge's challenge rang strangely familiar in his ears.

"Activation test unsuccessful...minimal resistance detected," Omega contributed. _Deja vu_, thought Shadow. _The feeling that something has already happened at least once before its current occurrence._ Eggman's answer only strengthened the feeling.

"Hmmph, this is only the beginning!" The little pod whittered off as the trio approached the second cannon. This time the moon shone down from above as the three soared towards the next arena, instead of up from below.

_Arena is the right word for it_, thought the black hedgehog, looking around. They stood on a flat, circular floor, separated by a ditch from the veritable Coliseum of multi-storied arches that ringed it. The hovercraft had set itself in one of the towering archways, as robots appeared out of others. It seemed that this time the doctor was throwing everything he had at them; every single type of robot Shadow had encountered to this point made an appearance. When they'd cleared that gauntlet, streams of Egg pawns were literally thrown at them, cascading down from above. Shadow guessed they'd been fired out of cannons like his team had; at any rate it was simplicity itself to pick them off one at a time. Unfortunately, they also served as a distraction from the final opponents: a giant, two armored giants, and a double helping of wizards. The giants were so big that they jostled each other in their attempts to close with their smaller opponents. Shadow simply called on the Chaos Emerald and shut everything down before the dark wizards had a chance to start draining his team. The rest was simple.

Infuriatingly, Eggman didn't seem particularly bothered by the mass destruction of his metal army. "Don't get so excited boys...those were the easy ones!" He darted off in his little vessel.

Shadow and Rouge sank to the ground in unison. The bat shifted suddenly, and groped in her pocket. Pulling out a small headset she put it on. "Rouge here... yes... no! Where? ...I see... Yes sir, I will sir, at once." She looked at Shadow as she tucked it away again. "The fish fleet is on the move. You ready to finish this?"

Shadow frowned. "What's a fish fleet?"

"Doctor Eggman has a whole armada of gigantic flying ships that are shaped like fish," she reminded him. "My boss is sending a carrier to pick us up, and take us back to the canyon, so I can get my plane." She looked over at the setting moon, then at Omega. "Don't shoot it when it arrives, just wake us up. Got that?"

"Understood," said the robot.

"Good," said Rouge. She looked around a moment, then flitted up and pulled one of the scarlet banners down. Landing next to Shadow, she spread it out on the floor. "Want one? It's not the best fabric for a blanket, but..."

"No thanks," he interrupted her. "I'm fine." He lay down on the stone floor as she rolled herself up in the banner, and went to sleep.

He was awakened by a strange, crackling noise and a harsh smell. He shifted slightly, identifying it as disinfectant, with another, unfamiliar odor mixed in. As he moved, he became aware that he was enclosed somehow. His eyes flew open, and he stared out through a greenish haze and a capsule window at a dozen copies of his own face.

Shadow gasped for breath, distantly aware of the discrepancy between the air he felt flooding his lungs and the fluid he could feel he was immersed in. His immediate attention, though, focused on the twelve Shadows in front of him in two rows. Eleven were in closed capsules, the last, directly in front, was restrained by metal bands on a surgical table, with a capsule open nearby. A large round figure was leaning over the black and red hedgehog on the table, rummaging in its abdominal cavity. Shadow barely had time to register the sight, and the horror it generated, when the figure straightened, raising a fistful of wires from the doppelganger's midsection. The other hand groped below the table and reappeared with a pair of pliers or something similar. Before Doctor Eggman could use the tool, however, he turned sharply and stomped off. Eventually he returned, replaced the wires in the android, and hooked up a tube that pumped in some sort of clear fluid, then disconnected that and closed the black furred skin down the midline. The android was then stood in the capsule, and the capsule was closed and filled with the same green fluid that Shadow himself was floating in. He stared in horror at the twelve capsules in front of him as the doctor wheeled the table away. _I wonder how many capsules there are to either side of me? How many 'me's are there? Is this why the Doctor said I had no past to remember? Is this all there is - just a vague recollection of watching other 'me's being created? _He gasped for air again and focused on the feeling. _Air, not fluid. I'm not here anymore. I am free!_

He sat up suddenly, blinking in the early dawn light. Rouge was curled up in her banner a few feet away. _A dream, or a memory?_ The black hedgehog shuddered involuntarily. Omega stood impassively near the edge of the ditch that ringed the arena floor._ I wonder if he knows?_ But Shadow couldn't bring himself to ask. He got slowly to his feet, and a flicker of light drew his gaze. He looked and saw two blinking lights, one red, one green, and as they drew nearer a dark shape between them.

He heard the robot move, and it clumped over to stand next to him. "Vehicle approaching," commented Omega.

"That's probably the ride Rouge called for us," the hedgehog pointed out. "Try not to blow it up, okay?"

"If it is not made by Eggman, there is no need for this unit to destroy it," responded Omega simply. As if that comment answered everything, he moved away again, a grey shape in the pale light.

Shadow continued to watch the approaching plane until he could hear its engines, then he moved over and shook Rouge lightly by the shoulder. She blinked sleepily at him, then her gaze sharpened as her brain woke up all the way. Shadow pointed towards the arriving vehicle as she sat up, and she nodded and got to her feet. By the time the little plane landed, all three were ready to board it.


	15. The Air Armada

14. The Air Armada

Rouge had reclaimed her little jet, and the trio had flown from the badlands back towards the Piscine Islands. Well before they reached the islands, though, they came in sight of the immense fleet. As she'd told Shadow, the ships were indeed shaped and painted like gigantic fish. The bat's sharp eyes picked out nearly a dozen massive scarlet 'whales' and a trio of even larger 'sawfish'. Judging by her jet's computer readout, the blue sawfish were controlling most of the red whales. The colors shone jewel-bright against a background of dark storm clouds on the distant horizon. _So_... she thought, _those must be the main battleships, and they're being controlled from... Good heavens!_

The last part she must have said out loud, because suddenly Shadow was leaning forward, asking "What's wrong?"

"Would you _**look**_at that thing!" she squeaked, point a finger ahead and down, at the behemoth that was gliding under the rest of the fleet - she kept wanting to call it a school.

"Whoa," was the black hedgehog's eloquent reply.

Below the red and blue fleet, and the veritable swarm of support and defensive platforms that were accompanying it, flew a ... mammoth stingray. _I can't even think of a suitably 'large' word. That thing's as big as a city! HOW is he keeping it aloft?_ The ray's 'wings' were marked with red and blue bulls-eyes instead of the Eggman symbols that usually marked the Eggman's creations, but there were two structures along its center line that were enormous replicas of Eggman, presumably to appease the man's ego. Rouge realized she was staring with her mouth open, but this was just... It was... _I'm going to kill whatever agents they've had watching this fleet. No one ever gave ANY indication that these things were that big._ Suddenly she was snapped out of her shock as the jet's alarms went off and she belatedly saw the little bird-jets swooping in to attack. Too late. She hit the seat release as the ship disintegrated around her, barely getting free in time to take flight. She snatched at Omega as he started to drop; Shadow seemed to have disappeared.

_Damn!_ She didn't swear often - it ruined the image she preferred to display - but this time she felt it was justified. She managed to steer the scarlet robot to the closest of the defense platforms. Shadow had evidently recovered his teleporting ability along with the Chaos Emerald, for he was already there, demolishing the cannons. "I'm glad you've got those booster things," she said to Omega as she dropped him to the metal floor, "there's no way I could carry you otherwise." She had finally realized that the robot had some sort of booster jets that permitted limited hovering. They weren't powerful enough to let him fly on his own, but they canceled out most of the weight so she basically just had to steer him. Not that steering 1200 kilos of mass was easy, but it was far preferable to trying to actually _carry_ him, which would have been impossible. The air was thin enough to make even steering him difficult up here, and cold! As she landed next to Omega and Shadow, a fleet-wide PA system clicked on.

The voice of Doctor Eggman rang out through the sky: "Muahahaha! You fools must all have a death wish! Witness this invincible battleship built by the hands of a genius! Its power... unmatched throughout the universe!"

Shadow scowled at the message and started to move towards one of the rails that interlinked many of the support platforms. "You'll regret this doctor...,"he said darkly. "Even if I'm not real... I'm still the Ultimate Life-form...Shadow the Hedgehog." He picked up speed with his last few words and leapt onto the rail, sliding towards the next platform.

Rouge followed automatically, and was appalled as she realized just how far up they were. Somehow it hadn't seemed so high from the inside of the little jet. At this level, any of her fellow agents who were human would have been gasping for air, and probably passing out for lack of it. Fortunately dokan lungs were more efficient, and as their body temperatures were normally lower than humans' they were less vulnerable to the cold. The few, wispy clouds around them were most likely ice crystals rather than water droplets, unlike the clouds massing much lower down on the southern horizon. Rouge thought she spotted a few flickers in the distant clouds, but they were miles away and nothing to worry about. She called ahead to Shadow, "We're flying very high! We might even be at the edge of space."

She saw the black-furred shoulders tense before her. "Space... did you say SPACE?" She wished she could see his face; it sounded like another memory was trying to break through, although his comment on the platform suggested he was doubting his authenticity again. She herself wasn't sure if he was the original Shadow from the ARK of fifty years ago, but she genuinely believed he was the same one that had been freed from Prison Island. Unfortunately, there was no good way to prove it. The original Project: Shadow would have many of the standard 'clone' markers by virtue of his creation; they were actually signs of in-laboratory creation rather than the clone-ness itself. She called to him as they ran along a support platform, strewn with replacement parts and specialized mechanic robots that paid the intruders no mind. When he glanced back, she indicated a rail that appeared to lead directly to one of the big whale ships. Wordlessly he turned and started grinding along it towards the red ship.

As Rouge felt her boots hit the deck of the whale ship, she immediately felt much more secure, if not any warmer. Even for a bat, that gliding across nothing was a bit unnerving. She could fly to another part of the fleet if she fell, but they were so high at the moment that she didn't think she could fly to the ground without her wings giving out. And that one wing was indeed more sore today. _So, better not fall off. I really must find an attractive coat when I get back though, this outfit is not practical for this temperature. _It wasn't as if there was anyone around to appreciate her assets at the moment anyway. _Just a bunch of robots. And Shadow, although he doesn't seem to notice. _

_Hmmm, __**that's **__not a good sign. _Spotting the lights moving across the deck towards them, she warned the others, "Here it comes! Get away from the target markers!" As they scattered away from the targeting lights, the massive shells began hitting the decks in the center of each mark. She noted that they did no damage to the deck. She had to concede that Eggman knew how to build things. She'd read the specs on those shells and knew that they could take down a good-sized building, or an armored tank, but his own ships weren't even scratched. As they dodged the shells they also had to deal with the guard robots that came swarming to the ship's defense. Rouge focused on kicking with her steel-toed boots while never landing in the same spot she'd left, and managed to turn some of the cannons' shots to her advantage by knocking foes into the blast range. Then she left the other two to finish off the cannons while she jimmied the security on the door - the Doctor's standard password worked, as usual. Security-minded he was not. The other two caught up a she ran through the opening door - into a hallway that opened onto the tail of the ship. A trail of the golden rings stretched incongruously from the ship's scarlet flukes to the nearest support platform. Never one to pass up an advantage, the bat looked to her black companion, who nodded. Shadow caught her hand and Omega's and somehow drew the three of them along to the platform. _I really wish I knew how he does that_, she thought. The rings were erratic allies at best, their placement was so random, but on occasion they could have been of great use to her.

"Careful," warned Shadow, interrupting her musings, "if you fall here, it's all over." Rouge roused from her thoughts and looked towards her companions. Omega and Shadow were already using a giant fan to boost themselves to a higher level of the platform. Rouge followed, and something caught her eye at the peak of the boost. _What's that? _She spread her wings swiftly and shifted out of the column of air, waving at the two below her to continue. _Aha. That's why 'You __**all**__ must have a death wish'. And if __**she's**__ here, Sonic must be somewhere around as well, but why the cat and that rabbit child?_ Rouge had researched Sonic's companions before, back during the ARK incident. Once Sonic had gotten involved - paranoid GUN commanders refusing to let on that their secret had escaped had resulted in Sonic's being imprisoned for being a high-speed hedgehog (never mind that the pictures of the individual stealing the Chaos Emerald had showed his color clearly as black and red, not blue) - she had looked at him and his companions as possible allies or hindrances. Amy Rose, the pink hedgehog that Rouge had just spotted on one of the other platforms, had a severe crush on the blue Sonic, and pursued him endlessly. Big the cat was a tangential companion from Chaos' attack on Station Square - another Eggman-engineered disaster - and had never done anything but live in a hut and fish as far as she'd been able to discover, until his best friend was stolen. The fact that the best friend was a frog said it all, in her opinion. He wasn't particularly bright, so maybe he'd seen the fleet and considered the fish-like ships would be the catch of a lifetime? The little rabbit - Cream or Cheese or Vanilla or something - was another Sonic rescuee and a friend of Amy's, but that was the extent of Rouge's knowledge about her.

_So, those three, and Sonic, and no doubt Tails and Knuckles... Well as long as they don't interfere, they'll distract Eggman's attention from us, or at least force him to divide it. _She dropped down to the platform and raced ahead to catch up with her own companions. Leaping onto the next rail that seemed to lead in the direction of one of the sawfish battleships, she noted that every 'tooth' on the ship's extended bow was capped with a gun turret. The rail did go to the battleship, but ended a dozen yards above the deck; she bounced off the end with a little flourish.

"Eggman's armada..." Shadow commented as they hit the deck. "What an amazing sight."

"But why so many?" wondered Rouge aloud. The stingray alone could demolish most cities, and just a few of the whales and sawfish could certainly trash the average military base. This was overkill with a vengeance, except for the slaving of all the whales to the blue battleships. That was risky, since it meant that there were really only three targets to hit to inactivate the whole fleet.

Total destruction for all Eggman's ships!" declared Omega, as they ran up the long 'nose' of the ship, dodging shells as they went.

At the end of the long bow, a ramp led up to the main deck. Shadow used an opportune ring trail to slide the three of them across an opening the deck that exposed a lower level. Rouge had just time to spot the ranks of Egg pawns below. Then she had to help the other two up a series of balconies on the front of the main structure; there were no doors in evidence. A narrow corridor led back into the ship, where they found a large, red robot standing guard. It looked more serious than the comically rotund Eggpawns, almost like a knight in armor, especially with the shield it carried. The center of the chest bore a circular depression, that was starting to glow as she watched.

"The E2000!" Omega evidently recognized the other robot. "So, they're in production. I'll destroy them!" He reached out and pushed Rouge and Shadow to one side as he jumped back the other direction. As the dokan caught their balances a huge, pink ray - a good two or three feet in diameter - fired through the space where they'd been. Omega's return fire was deflected by the tall shield, and then the E-2000 morphed into a small plane. The depression in the chest was now a dish structure protruding from the underside of the robotic craft, which sent another pink beam out after Omega.

Shadow looped around and went for the plane from the side, which resulted in the weapons dish being rotated to point towards him. Prudently, to Rouge's mind, he flipped back out of the way; evidently he wasn't certain that he could take a full-on blast of this new weapon either. Omega charged ponderously forward and tried to smash the dish itself. The E-2000 dodged the attack and returned to robot form; the dish was less maneuverable but better protected when embedded in its chest. Now it could use the shield again to deflect attacks, but with Rouge joining the guys, it could not protect itself from three directions at once. Steel toepicks put a crack in the armor that allowed entry of Omega's bullets, and the E-2000 went down. Rouge opened the door behind the defeated mech and stepped into the bridge. Leaving guard duty to her companions, she made a beeline for the ship's main computer. She ignored the sporadic skirmishes as Egg pawns entered the bridge and focused on pulling what information she could from the computer. _That's odd. Eggman makes journal entries daily - updating several times a day - until about three weeks ago, then just stops. Since most of the entries are the sort of ego-flattering he loves, why would he stop? Hmmm. Okay, can't destroy the whale ships, but can shut them down temporarily and self-destruct this computer from here, but each battleship and its attendant fleet of whales must be done separately._

_-Oops, there goes one now. _As she watched, the computer's status report on another battleship and its enslaved whale-ships went red. She located a camera that would let her see the desired area on the far side of the fleet and caught a glimpse of Tails tailicoptering towards one of the whale ships. Sonic was hanging under something - he flicked out of camera range before she could identify it - with Knuckles clinging to the hedgehog's waist for dear life. _Bingo, they __**are **__here. So, we don't need to get all of the battleships. That stingray, however..._

'That stingray' took a bit more searching - it seemed like hours although it was less than fifteen minutes - but she finally located what she needed. Dr. Eggman, in a surprising bit of forethought, had arranged self-destruct triggers that would take out the ship's weapons and propulsion systems (to prevent its being turned against him if captured), but NOT damage the repulsorlifts that kept it airborne. _If we hit these three triggers, that will stall the fleet where it is, and it won't matter if we're over land or near the shore because the ship won't crash. _She snorted to herself as she saw the Doctor's reasoning: to prevent damage to the country he intended to take over. _Of course_, the bat shook her head as she stood up and keyed in the battleships destruct codes. _Who wants to take over a destroyed city and have to start by rebuilding everything?_

"I've set the self destruct. It'll eject us off the bridge, shut down the engines and weapons of the slaved whales, and destroy this ship's computer completely," she announced to Shadow and Omega, her finger resting on the 'Enter' key. "Ready guys?"

Shadow nodded. "Let's take this bridge down."

"Alright!" the bat said as she pressed down.

"Destroy all!" bellowed Omega as they were shot out through a hatch in the roof.

The trio landed on another rail and were able to ride it to the next whale ship. Unfortunately, this one was apparently not slaved to the battleship they'd just left, as its weapons were still very much active. Rouge and her companions dodged attacks and Egg pawns as before, and arrived at the stern of the ship to find an odd gadget hooked to the deck - that looked startlingly similar to the flower that Shadow had put into flight back in the jungle.

"Hmmm," was the hedgehog's response as he gave Rouge a sideways glance. Then, with a smirk: "Care for a spin?" He threw one arm up quickly to block the bat's punch, and actually laughed as he unhooked the device and handed it to Omega.

"Utilize helicopter to access next battleship," agreed the robot as he took hold of the thing's handle. With his other hand, Omega began tapping on a tiny keypad set below the blades.

Rouge scowled at the dark hedgehog but put her hand on the handle as well. Shadow whipped around in a neat tornado spin and launched the tiny craft into the air, leaping to grab the shaft just above the handle before it shot out of reach. Rouge had been concerned about steering the device, but evidently Omega had entered some sort of directions; it headed for the next battleship, weaving automatically between intervening gun and repair platforms to drop down on the long bow of the blue ship. This time they arrived at the bridge to find the guards already destroyed, and the computer also shut down. Rouge led the others on into the eject chute, and swatted the button.

"Eliminate all Eggman's fleet weapons!" was Omega's battle-cry as they were flung back out into the frigid air.

Their next landing was on an already-trashed whale ship. Robot parts and smashed cannons littered the deck. The door of the passage leading to the stern stood open, and they reached the end to find a set of fans stair-stepping out to the next platform.

"Look!" said Shadow, pointing up the 'stairs'. "Aren't those the guys we saw at the energy plant?"

Rouge followed his gaze and frowned. "Ye-es," she said slowly, "but I wonder what they _are _doing here. They're supposed to be detectives for hire, and I can't imagine who would hire them to come up here. Except the government, and they've got plenty of their own operatives, like me." She was still cold, but not being as exhausted and stressed as she had been the last time she ran into the Chaotix detectives, she realized that there was very little chance that they were actually after the same goal as she was. But she couldn't figure out why they _were _here. "Hmmph," she snorted finally, "maybe Eggman owes them money or something.

"There they go," she added as the crocodile finally managed to scramble onto the platform, the poor chameleon practically dragging him up. The bee was bouncing frantically around like a ping-pong ball, as usual. She waited a moment more to let them move out of sight and looked at her team. "Shall we?"

"Affirmative," droned Omega and started to step forward. Shadow looked a bit doubtfully at the multi-level line of fans.

"You used this sort of lifting device in Piscine Island ruins," Rouge pointed out. "And the badlands." They had also encountered several fans already amid the fleet, but those were all solo units. She didn't remember any multiple ones since the badlands bases.

"Yes, but those had bottoms to them," objected Shadow. "And you could _see _the ground even if the fans weren't on it. These don't have anything supporting them." He was staring at the thin air below the closest fan as he spoke, not glancing her way for even a moment.

Rouge suddenly remembered the panicked grab he'd made when she caught him after the Egg Hawk Mk. II had exploded and knocked him into the air above the canyon. _He must have fallen a long way towards the Earth from the ARK. Maybe even __**all **__the way, though I can't believe even the Ultimate Life-Form could survive that._ Keeping her tone light, she asked, "I haven't let you down yet, have I? Since we started this little adventure?"

Shadow looked up finally, turning towards her. "No," he said at last. "But I still don't like it." He grimaced and jumped off the edge into the fan's air stream before she could answer.

Rouge caught Omega's hand and jumped after Shadow, the two catching his hands to form a sky-diving triangle that was lifted high by the fan. Angling their bodies, Rouge and Omega steered themselves and Shadow gradually up the staircase in a stomach-wrenching collection of lifts and drops as they entered and left successive updrafts. Shadow's tan muzzle grew noticeably paler with each jolt and his grip grew tighter. Rouge had a feeling that her face was doing the same, although her skin was paler than his to start with. Her stomach was certainly threatening rebellion by the time they landed. She managed to pry Shadow's fingers loose and began rubbing her hand, feeling like it had just been wrung like a wet rag. The black hedgehog simply sat down hard on the metal surface, while Omega patrolled the edges of the platform.

After a moment Shadow pulled in a long breath and stood up again, walking to the edge of the platform. Another one was moored to it but about five feet lower down. Another of the small spinners was hooked in the middle of that platform. Rouge dropped down and studied the keypad, but couldn't decipher it.

"What destination do you desire?" inquired Omega as he clomped up behind her. Shadow glided noiselessly alongside.

Rouge pointed at the last of the blue sawfish, which actually hung directly over the center of the ray-shaped flagship. "That giant battle ship, up ahead." Omega pressed a few buttons, Shadow did his tornado move, and away they went.

This time the flight was decidedly longer. The tiny helicopter took them around and over a number of the platforms, many of which were now firing at them. Rouge almost let go a few times, and kept a sharp eye out for the closest place to land if a shell came too close. Finally Omega announced, "Securing and preparing to land on next battleship." A moment later they dropped onto the last of the blue ships. This one was still very well armed and defended.

Ten minutes later, Rouge checked the computer and keyed in the shutdown commands, then led her party to the escape chute. "Is that it?" Shadow asked her as they ejected.

Rouge nodded. "We got him," she declared. Then she frowned as she noticed the thunderheads that had been safely on the horizon were now all but overhead. They had also descended more than she had realized, not only moving onto the lower ships in the fleet, but the fleet itself must have moved closer to the ground. That ground was still too far away for comfort, though.

Omega, not noticing her sudden unease, agreed, "Target destroyed!"


	16. The Storm Brews

15. The Storm Brews

The sky had gone from its normal daytime blue to nearly as black as night, but without a hint of stars or moon. Some form of light was provided by the brilliant arcs that leapt from one place to another amid clouds that had lost their white brilliance to dark angry-looking greys. _Lightning. Electrical discharges usually associated with storms caused by electrical potentials building up and grounding between clouds or the clouds and the earth._ Shadow snorted to himself as he neared the end of the rail they'd been riding down from the third gigantic battleship. Below them, the far more massive flagship spread nearly as far as he could see, it's sullen purple surface rivaling the clouds for ominous warning. _At least my flash training is still working, _he thought. _I wonder if I've ever seen a storm before? I wouldn't have on the ARK. If I __**was **__on the ARK. _Growling he pushed the nagging doubts from his mind and focused on the rapidly nearing goal. " I'm feeling a bit uneasy..." he declared. "Time to attack!"

Rouge, just ahead of him, was shaking her head. "I thought that battleship was big, but this is _enormous_!"

Omega, of course, completely failed to be impressed. "Eggman's headquarters detected! Destruction mode engaged!"

The three dropped off the rail onto the surface of the ship. It was far more irregular than it had seemed from a distance; several towering structures stood between them and the first of the Eggman effigies. Rouge had said that- "Whoa!" He interrupted his own thoughts as the surface below him started to shake... and then sink. He scrambled with Rouge and Omega to the closest section that was not shifting, and looked back to see the part they'd been standing on disappearing into the depths of the humongous vessel.

"Sections of this ship are unstable," said Omega. "Keep moving fast!"

"Thanks for the warning," grumbled Rouge. "You okay, Shadow?"

"Yes." He tried to recall what he'd been thinking when the floor had interrupted him. "Oh, you said the Eggman statue was where the power base was?"

"According to the scans and the information on the battleship's computer. And it fits his profile," she replied. "Egotistical is far too mild a word for Eggman."

"So..." Shadow turned slowly, getting his bearings, then pointed. "That way?"

"Affirmative," agreed Omega. "Power readings indicate primary control of fleet in indicated direction."

"Let's go, then," said the bat, and they set off along the top of the ship, watching for unexpected holes or weak sections. While backing away from one spot that dropped unexpectedly away from Omega's feet, they discovered that not all of the 'weak' areas were weak - as they started to go around, the sunken section rose back into place with a squad of Egg pawns standing on it. The 'holes' were either skylights or exits for the plane robots and bird planes, they opened into lower levels of the ship, usually. A few of them did go straight through, revealing more stormy clouds below the ship, and rows of windows in the walls surrounding the shafts. Overhead ran more of the rails they had seen connecting the gun and service platforms in the main fleet; occasionally a supply tram purred along one, indifferent to the figures below it. Only when they hit the first of the building-like structures did they encounter serious resistance. The entrance was blocked by several of the knight-like robots, only this time they were gold instead of red.

"Those guys look pretty tough," warned Rouge, "careful now!" Shadow nodded as he circled to the left, mirroring Omega's shift to the right side of the opponents. The gold versions of the robots they'd met so far were typically tougher than the standard ones.

He jumped sharply back as a pink laser nearly hit him. Belatedly he realized it hadn't, in fact, _quite _missed him, and felt a surge of anger. "Who do they think they are?" he demanded, as the smell of singed fur filled the room.

"The E2000!" announced Omega. For a moment Shadow thought the robot was answering his rhetorical question, but the E-123 continued, "So they're in production. I'll destroy them!"

"You're being redundant, Omega," called Rouge as she launched herself in a tight spiral around the foes. "You said that about the red ones."

"Those were a different production lot than these," answered the robot, as he started launching his missiles.

By the time the smoke cleared, Shadow had verified that his fur was only scorched and not actually on fire, and Rouge had opened the door into the first of the self-destruct rooms. "Is that it?" asked the black hedgehog as he stepped into the room. The thing in front of him was taller than he was - as tall as most humans, in fact - wider than it was tall, and lit with flashing lights like a computer panel. It certainly looked nothing like any switch he'd ever seen. "You mean the switch is _on_ this somewhere," he said, realizing that that must be the case.

"Nope," answered the bat cheerfully, "this whole thing is the switch. And you and I can't do anything with it, even together. This is mainly an Omega-job." She jumped and caught the edge of the device, and pulled herself up onto it. "You see the cleverness of our good doctor. He wanted a way to make sure that no one could take over his ship and turn it against him, so he put in these self-destruct devices that would shut down the computers and weapons if they were triggered. But to prevent an enemy from triggering the devices he made them big, and designed them so that only a significant amount of weight - like Omega here - can actually set them off. And you have to hit at least three of them for the shut-down to take effect. Oh, and just to be certain, the devices will explode themselves and probably kill anyone in the area when they're triggered."

"What!?" Shadow's ruby eyes widened in shock. "It's going to blow _us _up?" Was the bat mad?

"No," explained Rouge, "it's designed to blow up the ...being... that triggers it. Eggman, of course, would just order some robots to do the job, he's got plenty. But it's not going to blow us up, because we have the Ultimate Life-form on our side, and my brains.

"Honestly, Shadow, did you really think I was going to blow myself to kingdom come, just to stop Doctor Eggman?" She cocked a silver eyebrow at him.

"No," he said slowly, "that's why I was surprised. But how are we going to _not_ get... 'blown to kingdom come'?"

"Simple. Omega is going to put a hole in the ceiling. Then, he'll pull the plating off that wall there, and put it on top of this trigger, so that when his weight triggers the explosion, the armor plate will get blasted out the hole in the ceiling. And so will we, since we'll be on top of it."

Shadow regarded her dubiously. "That's 'simple', is it?"

"The plan should be effective," volunteered the red robot. And with no warning, Omega swung an arm up and blasted the ceiling of the small room. Rouge yelped and dove for the door as bits of shredded, hot metal suddenly showered around her, colliding with Shadow as he also vacated the narrow space.

Rouge growled softly and rubbed a red mark on one ear. "I wish he'd stop doing that."

"Well he is a robot," Shadow pointed out. "He may be rebelling against the Doctor's instructions, but he's still programmed to follow the orders he's given. You told him what to do, so he did it. Just remember next time to tell him to wait until we're clear before doing something." Rouge gave him an odd look, then flicked her gaze back into the room where Omega was wrestling one of the armor plates off the wall it was supposed to be shielding. Shadow puzzled over the strange glance a moment, then shrugged it off. She'd tell him if she thought it was important for him to know, and if she didn't, she wouldn't tell him regardless. He sighed wearily as he watched Omega hoisting the plate onto the top of the self-destruct device. _I might be a clone, but I can't possibly be a robot. There's no way a robot could ever be so tired. _It wasn't a tiredness from physical exertion, though he'd certainly been doing plenty of that, but from mental stress. _I haven't had anything to be certain about since I woke up, except my name and that dream._ 'That dream' being the first nightmare he'd had; there was a solidness about that terror-stricken flight that had lasted past his waking up, while the other, the one with the capsules of Shadows, had become rather fuzzy and distant. _And the Emerald. _He suddenly recalled the thrill of power at his control and the _knowing_ that it was his to call. He shook his head and moved back into the room when Rouge beckoned him, hauling himself onto the top of the armor plate as she flitted up herself.

"Maybe you should go on up," he said suddenly. "You can fly, so you can get clear; if we don't launch straight, and hit those edges..." he waved a hand at the jagged metal where the ceiling had been blown away.

"That's why I need to stay," she answered. "I don't think those can really hurt Omega, but I can guide you a bit as we go up, to make sure neither of us hits the jaggies."

Shadow frowned, but didn't try to press the matter. There wasn't time anyway, as Omega was clumping towards them at a run, ready to leap to the top of the device. The black hedgehog crouched quickly, bracing his hands against the steel for balance--

BLAM!! Shadow had barely registered the device's sinking beneath the robot's weight before the metal beneath him lurched skyward. It tilted as it rose, but Rouge managed to guide both her companions so they landed on one of the service rails. The rail and its two companions shook sharply as the metal plate slammed into it on its way back down, but none of the three broke.

The three companions spread out, each sliding down a separate rail towards the next structure. "He underestimated us, thinking that would do the job," Shadow said.

Rouge wasn't quite as confident, for all that she'd laid out the plan to counter the Doctor's defenses. "But that was pretty close," she warned him.

Omega was having none of it. "Target destroyed. Searching for next target!" he declared. The next target was easy to find, an E-2000 standing on the center rail directly in front of them. Shadow, who was on the central rail, vaulted over the shield and home-attacked it before it could defend itself properly, neatly landing back on the rail as the robot toppled to the ship below.

However, the clouds above and below were growing even darker, except where lightning danced between them. Shadow muttered grimly, "This weather, could be an omen..."

Rouge frowned. She didn't need him getting depressed or sulky _now_. She scoffed, "You're thinking too much, Shadow." She noted the robot looked oddly unsettled as well. "What, you too, Omega?" She hadn't thought robots could _get_ unsettled.

But the robot had something else on his positronic brain. "Sensing strong magnetic field...magnitude off the scale!" Rouge felt her fur stand on end as a sudden static charge flared up along the rail she was on. "Incoming, red laser!" cried Omega. She hopped over to Shadow's rail just in time, as an enormous laser beam lanced up the track she'd been on. As they soared past she noted that the gun unit below had three 'barrels', one pointed at each rail. Beside it was a sign with Eggman's symbol, and the number '3'. To inform... repair crews? intruders? ...that there were three lasers? At least they were past it, but she'd need to keep an eye out for more. Eggman liked to repeat things. She returned warily to her original rail.

"Caution. Large laser weapons detected!" announced Omega as they reached the peak of the rise and the rails dropped towards the next segment of the battle-station. She realized belatedly that the segments were numbered, as the one they were approaching had the Eggman symbol and the number '4' emblazoned on it. She almost snapped something about late warnings, when she noticed Shadow's fur was rising. "Incoming. Yellow laser!" warned Omega again, as Shadow joined her on _her_ rail. However, no sooner had he done so than her own fur started to prickle again. She hoisted him and jumped over the yellow laser to Omega's rail, as a red beam blazed up the one they'd just left.

They flipped off the rails and into the interior of the fourth segment, working their way through quaking corridors and more enemies. Another turret-guarded bay held a helmeted giant among other opponents, and Shadow stopped time again, permitting his allies to take down giant, Eggpawns, and gun turrets all at once. Rouge thought wistfully how handy that trick would be for both of her careers; she really must see if she could get Shadow hired by the government when they were done here.

Another quick grind, down a shorter set of rails, led to a pair of single rail loops. As the white bat led the way from one to the next, she puzzled over the construction. She couldn't come up with a logical reason, unless it was some method of preventing sabotage by keeping unauthorized trams or robots from simply riding the rails to the center of the purple battle-station. At any rate the second loop didn't connect to any rails at all, instead they had to drop off at the far end onto a scaffolding set up in front of Section 5. A trio of E-2000's guarded the fan on the lowest level that was designed to boost them to the next. The two dokan and their robotic companion handily put the red and gold robots out of commission and arrived on the next platform to confront one of the helmeted giants, flanked by a pair of Egg pawns with spiked shields. Rouge added a nasty bruise on one arm to her strained wing, when she got caught by the giant's hammer and barely avoided being flung into the wall. But she'd managed to pry the helmet off, which allowed Shadow to defeat the giant while Omega finished off the Egg pawns. The next level held the same grouping, and had the same result, although Rouge was more successful in avoiding the helmeted giant's hammer. Shadow used his tornado move to spin the trio up a pole to the top of the scaffold, where the giant doors whirred open to reveal a second pair of doors tightly shut behind them - and a trio of giants starting to move forward in the space between. This time Shadow aborted the battle, freezing the robots in place so that the team could handle them easily.

"Enemies defeated!" grated Omega, as the time freeze ended, allowing the crushed giants to crash to the platform.

Rouge felt a surge of elation as the second pair of doors opened, revealing another of the self-destruct switches. "I knew we could do it!"

"Don't let your guard down just yet," cautioned Shadow. Rouge flicked him a glance, noting the tension in his shoulders and his grim expression. _Hang in there, Shadow, _she thought,_ I honestly can't finish this mission without help._ Not an admission she made often - or had to - and not one she was going to make aloud, but she was realist enough to know it for truth: this battle station all by itself was more than she could take on either using stealth or fighting skills. Add in the rest of the fleet... _But the real question still is, 'Why?' What is Eggman hoping to gain by this? _She shook her head; it was the great unanswerable. Omega had replicated the set-up from the previous self-destruct switch, and as the bat flitted up to kneel on the protective armor plate, her mouth quirked. _Perhaps he's decided that the Black Comet is some sort of omen for him. Hmmm, come to think of it, __**Shadow **__was created around the last time it passed by the planet_.

"Shadow," she started, "do you know anything about the Black Comet?"

"The what?" He gave her a puzzled look, then the conversation was cut short by Omega's landing between them and the device exploding. As the noise died away and the smoke cleared, Rouge was too busy locating the nearest safe landing point to pursue the topic.

This time they ended up higher than before, and Rouge got an impressive overview to remind her of just how big this ship was. Evidently Shadow's thoughts were running along the same lines. "Enormous engineering feat, I must admit," he conceded.

"If you want to conquer the world, you need something that big," was the bat's reply. She agreed with Shadow; the Doctor was every bit as good an engineer as he boasted he was. _Now, if this were an old movie, or a kid's video game, I'd have to finish that thought with "It's a shame he chose to use his skills for evil, instead of good." _She smirked at the thought; no one would ever catch her saying anything that trite!

"That thing isn't enough to stop me! I'll destroy it with my bare hands!" Omega shouted his defiance into the oncoming storm.

And now they were approaching the sixth section of the ship. Rouge spotted another bank of lasers ahead, three muzzles again aligned with the rails. And Shadow was suddenly on her rail in front of her as the preliminary static crackled up the central rail he'd just left.

"Yellow laser fired!" she called automatically, as the yellow beam swept past her.

Omega responded with a warning: "Incoming, red laser!" She and Shadow vaulted precariously to join the robot on the third rail. The rails curved up and ended, dropping the trio onto a lower set. These sloped down again towards yet another laser bank. This time the first laser fired was a blue, on Omega's rail, making the group shift again.

As the second, yellow, beam passed harmlessly between Shadow's left-hand rail and Rouge and Omega on the right, he remarked disparagingly, "Four lasers, what a waste."

Rouge, looking ahead, warned the other two, "Total of _twelve _lasers. Better stay frosty."

Omega's warning overlapped her own, "Caution! Four laser cannons detected." The cannons were lined up side by side, with the rails they guarded sequentially ending until only the left-most three continued on. Rouge and her companions began hopping left frantically, as one after another the lasers flared up their respective rails. Finally, they had to leap back _over_ the next-to-last laser, to avoid the one scorching up the final, left-most rail. They had no chance to be relieved at passing the gauntlet, however, for now they were directly in line with the first of the Eggman images on the center line of the vessel. And one of the blank eye sockets was glowing with a dismayingly familiar light.

Rouge leapt into the air. "Grab onto Omega!" she yelled as she grabbed the robot herself and pulled. "Turn on those dratted boosters!" she grunted as she tried to lift a ton of robot into the air. Omega obediently jumped up and engaged the boosters, which enabled Rouge to haul him and Shadow - just in time! - up off the rails. This laser beam was three times the diameter of the previous ones, covering all three of the rails and holding the beam for longer. Rouge felt the robot slip from her grasp, taking a nail with him– but the laser died just then, in the nick of time to avoid vaporizing the robot or the Ultimate Life-form still clinging to the metal neck.

Shadow dropped back to the rail and caught Rouge as she started to drop past, missing her aim. He set her firmly on the rail in front and held on until he was sure she had her balance back. Rouge shoved her injured finger into her mouth while she tried to decide which was screaming louder, the torn nail or her strained wing. Another self-destruct button came into view below them. "There," she said, pointing with her free hand, "that's the last one we need."

"Right," said Shadow's quiet voice behind her, and abruptly they were there, standing in front of the device, looking down from its ledge on the heads of the robots set to guard it. Omega jumped off the ledge onto the head of the helmeted giant, managing to cleave the helmet in twain as he dropped. A second blow to the now-vulnerable head shut the massive unit down. Omega pried free the massive chest plate and managed to jump up from the shoulders of the still-standing giant to catch the ledge with one hand. He shoved the captured breastplate over the edge, then used both hands to haul himself up. Placing the armor on top of the device he lifted Rouge onto it as Shadow scrambled up himself. Then the robot took another running jump up onto the device. The plate armor was catapulted up and forward, tilting sharply as something in front of them exploded as well - and Rouge found herself suddenly standing on a flat platform where the Eggman effigy's head had been, with Shadow's hands on her shoulders. Omega crashed down on his back nearby, while the armor plate barely missed landing on top of him.


	17. Endgame

16. Endgame

Shadow held on to Rouge while she caught her breath and her balance; he hadn't had time to warn her when the plate flipped, he'd just grabbed her and Chaos Controlled to the nearest flat surface. When he felt her shifting to move away, he let go, then looked up as he heard the whine of approaching engines. A giant white robot was approaching through the air, with Doctor Eggman seated in its hollow head. It carried an oblong shield and an enormous sword.

Rouge shook herself slightly as she stepped forward. "OK, no more games!"

"Intercept mode complete," said Omega.

Shadow stepped in front of both and challenged the approaching human, "This is the end of the line, Doctor!" They _had _to bring him down this time, and get some answers!

The doctor didn't seem impressed. "Hmmph! Shadow, Rouge, Omega. It's time to meet your maker! I'll show you what real evil is!" He pounded a fist on the edge of his cockpit and the robot began to withdraw, readying its sword.

"This is it!" cried Shadow. "Let's go!" He suited actions to words without waiting to see what the others were doing. He marked the low buildings dotted around the platform, but ignored them since there was no sign of enemies emerging from or hiding behind them.

"O. K!" Rouge answered as she tried to keep pace with the dark hedgehog.

"Affirmative!" was Omega's response, as he did the same.

The three scattered abruptly as the sword slashed through the air, revealing that it not only was a dangerous edged weapon, but it also possessed the ability to emit energy shockwaves that raced towards the pursuers. Shadow was the first to recoup, charging after the robot again. "You'll regret this!" he yelled into the wind created by his charge. He didn't so much care whether the human heard him or not, but he wanted to make this man pay for what he'd done... as soon as he could figure out what it was.

"Give 'em all you've got!" sang out Rouge, who had taken wing and was flitting about four feet off the ground to the hedgehog's left.

"Now to face real evil, Dr. Eggman!" announced Omega. Shadow was momentarily distracted by the comment. _Does he mean we're__evil? Or is it 'Now __**we**__ face real evil: Doctor Eggman?_

He shook off the distraction as they dodged another set of shockwaves, this time without breaking formation. The scientist ahead screamed in outrage, "It's not over yet, troublesome fools!"

The troublesome fools spread out, Shadow using his speed to circle the robot and flank it from behind, while Rouge darted to its right side. With Omega firing volley after volley at the shield, the robot could not turn to attack both. Shadow quickly discovered that there was a force field over the cockpit that was proof against his homing attack, and changed his target from the pilot to the shoulder joint of the arm holding the shield. Rouge was already weaving in a sort of midair dance with the sword, occasionally landing a kick on the arm that held it.

"I am the Ultimate power!" cried the black hedgehog, as the third strike against the robot made the shield drop - and the fourth made the arm itself drop off.

"Had enough yet?" challenged Rouge, as her steel-toed boots did the same to the robot's right arm.

"Eggman's robots must be eliminated!" cried Omega as his next batch of missiles took the giant robot in the chest. The head launched itself free as the massive body toppled to the deck.

"I won't go down that easy!" bellowed the human, "...Defeated? Impossible! Nooooo..." Abruptly the pod that had been the robot's head detonated. Shadow squinted into the cloud of smoke and fragmented plastic and metal. _Did I just see something slip away?_

Omega clearly had seen nothing. "Eggman target completely destroyed," the robot announced triumphantly.

Rouge flew a tight loop over the fallen parts, frowning as she looked for something. Shadow started to take a step towards the debris himself, to look for the doctor's body, when a voice interrupted him.

"Hey! Where did it go? Did it get away?" It was a female voice, younger-sounding than Rouge's. He looked up to see a pink hedgehog running towards him with a mallet half her size clutched in one hand. An even younger, lop-eared rabbit was with her, a small blue creature clinging to one shoulder. A very large and rotund cat completed the group, tripping over his flipflops and shouldering a long, skinny stick.

"Ha– have you– seen Froggy?" The cat panted as he lumbered to a stop. Twice Shadow's height, he must have been six or seven times the hedgehog's weight. As he bent to gasp for breath with his hands on his knees, Shadow saw there was a string attached to the stick, with something small and shiny at the other end.

"It?" he returned, confused and trying to answer two questions at once. "The only frogs I've seen were back in the jungle, but if you mean the robot, it's right there." He waved a hand at the fallen behemoth.

"Not the robot," said the pink hedgehog with exasperation, staring past him and clearly looking for something. "I mean the thing that was pretending to be Doctor Eggman. Did it get away?"

"Pretending to be..."

"Unfortunately it did," interrupted Rouge, as she dropped down beside Shadow. "Or at least, there's no sign of a robot among the parts of that pod, and certainly nothing to indicate a human was caught in the explosion.

"I thought I saw something flying off when the pod exploded," offered Shadow, "but I couldn't tell what–"

"SHADOW!!" squealed the pink hedgehog suddenly, half-deafening him. "Shadow, you're alive? You're supposed to be dead! Oh!!" He staggered slightly as she flung herself at him, wrapping both arms around his neck. "I didn't realize it was you at first! Oh I'm so _glad_ you're safe!" Then she pulled back suddenly and frowned at him. "You're not going to try to destroy the world again, are you?"

Totally bewildered, Shadow shook his head. "I wasn't planning on it." He grunted as she flung herself at him again. Rouge caught the other girl's arms and detached her.

"Cool it, Amy. He's still a bit stasis-dazed. Besides," she said warningly, "I'm not sure Eggman's done yet; we'd better split up and scout around. Since you're here, I assume that Sonic's around somewhere?"

The pink hedgehog pouted. "He's around, with Tails and Knuckles. They told me to go home before I got hurt. But," and now she sounded more puzzled, "Sonic wouldn't tell me where Froggy and Chocola are or why he 'borrowed' them. In fact, he acted like he didn't know what I was talking about!" She seemed highly insulted by the last fact.

Rouge had no idea what Amy was talking about, and she didn't care. "Look, you and your friends go that way," she waved towards one of the low buildings that had originally been covered by the faux-Eggman's domed head, "and we'll go this. Look into any rooms you can get into, but watch out - there's something very strange going on and I don't like it." She wasn't really worried that the three might get hurt; they had after all gotten here in the first place, and both Amy and Big the Cat had been involved with the Chaos disaster. Presumably they were looking out for the little rabbit.

The bat herself turned and strode rapidly towards another of the low buildings. Omega clumped after her, but she saw Shadow skating off in the direction of a third. She quickly outdistanced the robot. Perhaps up here was where Eggman had hidden his treasure, and if so, she meant to be the one to find it. That thought spurred her to take wing (what was a pulled muscle compared to fabulous riches?) and fly as fast as possible to the building. The outer door, as always, opened to Eggman's usual password, and the second wasn't even locked. "Now," she said to herself greedily, "let's find that secret treasure..." --And came to a dead stop, mouth hanging open. She stood immobile for a long moment until her lungs finally gasped for air of their own accord. Only then did she blink and take a few unsteady steps down the aisle.

As far as she could see, the entire shed was filled with row upon row of capsules, the same style as the one she'd freed Shadow from; each EXACTLY like the one she'd freed Shadow from, up to and including the green liquid that filled the space behind the window at the top... and the red-striped black hedgehogs floating amid the green liquid. Eyes closed, unmoving save for the slight waving of their fur in the current of the recirculating fluid. Unconsciously, she opened and closed her mouth a few times, unable to get anything out - and not really knowing what to say anyway. Her brain was scurrying in circles like a hamster in its wheel, and with about as much progress. _He can't be... it __**can't**__ be true, he's not... But LOOK at them... fur and all... _She couldn't seem to put together a single coherent thought. Then her eye fell on the small brass plate on the front of the nearest capsule. 'SHADOW android 217-D'. She looked to the next - 'SHADOW android 217-E' - and across the aisle - 'SHADOW android 221-Q'. She jumped as a heavy footfall clomped behind her, and spun to see Omega stepping in through the door.

The robot's green eye-sensors wavered back and forth. "Prepare to destroy immediate area!" he intoned. Remembering his tendency to not wait long before obliterating targets, Rouge started to leave. Then she stopped.

"Hey, Omega..." she started weakly, "did I ever tell you that Shadow is a robot, and... oh never mind..." she still wasn't sure what to say. She'd been so _certain _that he was real! "Good luck," she concluded lamely, and moved past him towards the door.

"You know about cloning," said the robot behind her suddenly. She stopped and looked back. Omega was standing as still as only a robot could, his back to her. "...the original must exist somewhere," he concluded.

Rouge stepped out the door, only half-hearing the din as Omega proceeded to destroy the contents of the room. _The original must exist somewhere? Cloning... all those androids had fur! Could the fur, the whole skin perhaps, be cloned from Shadow? __**Our **__Shadow? Or have we been running around with an android and the original is somewhere else? No._ She shook her head firmly. _I can't be that wrong, I just __**can't**__. Our Shadow, the one traveling with Omega and me, __**has **__to be the original. But why couldn't the blasted robot just say that?_

She smacked a hand against her forehead. "Because he was ordered not too. Idiot! Omega was set to _guard_ the original, to prevent anyone releasing Shadow before Eggman was through with him, so of course he wouldn't be allowed to go announcing that he was keeping one of the heroes of the planet captive! And the original Shadow would be far too valuable to load onto a war ship. That's why he was hidden in that secret part of the base, so that if things went pear-shaped with his invasion the doctor could make more androids!" A sudden noise made her look up. The second Eggman effigy, which was right behind the one they'd blown the head off of, had a tall antenna structure mounted atop its domed skull. Something was clinging to the antenna and roaring into the rising storm.

_Whoever that is is just __**asking **__to get hit by lightning_, she thought as she ran towards it. She was joined by Shadow, then they joined three figures already standing at the edge of the platform. She recognized Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, just as Amy and her crew ran up as well, followed by the Chaotix detectives... who were accompanied by Doctor Eggman. By the way he was wheezing and sweating, she figured he had to be the real thing. "What..."she started to ask.

A flare of lightning interrupted her, followed by a crash of thunder. Then a synthesized voice gave a grim chuckle, and bellowed over the wind, "All living things kneel before your master!" Rouge jumped back and threw up an arm to protect her face as the second effigy exploded, more completely than the first had. However, the pieces did not scatter far and wide as they should have; instead, they swirled in a sort of vortex and began crashing together and melding to form an enormous, robotic, dragon-type creature, hovering before them.

Doctor Eggman gasped, "Metal Sonic has finally transformed!" Egg pawns streamed out of the nearby sheds and off of lifts rising from below, flowing around the group like lemmings seeking the sea, or rats fleeing a sinking ship. They paid no attention to the organic beings clustered in a knot before the monster.

Rouge frowned, ignoring the robots; that name was vaguely familiar... Sonic, however, recognized it instantly. "So THAT'S Metal Sonic?" he demanded.

Eggman didn't seem to hear. "It's useless!" he moaned. "Metal Sonic has combined you data with the power of Chaos, and is super strong! We can't defeat it! Argh," he cried, "if only we had the seven Chaos Emeralds!"

Shadow, beside Rouge, started and produced the glowing purple gem he'd brought with them from the haunted castle. Sonic had whipped out the red one he'd flashed in the canyon, Knuckles offered a gleaming white one, and one after another various members of the other two teams pulled out the remaining four gems. The human blinked in surprise, the gems' light glinting off his spectacles. "What's this? But how?"

Then he shook his head, "Even with the Emeralds' power, our chances for victory are slim! It would take a miracle!"

The cocky blue hedgehog stepped forward, exuding confidence. "Just leave that to me Doc!"

"Sonic, no!" cried Amy.

The little fox had bounced forward to join his hero. "I'm going with you too!"

"Tails..." said Sonic, clearly not wanting to take the cub into danger.

"You can count me in too!" added Knuckles as he joined his friends.

"Knuckles!" Sonic had evidently been counting on the echidna to help dissuade Tails, not egg him on. But the monster was getting restless, sensing that no one was watching his posturing. Shadow, who alone had been keeping an eye on Metal Sonic, pushed into the center.

"Okay guys!" he cut short the argument, "We'll buy you some time! That way you can use your super powers!"

Sonic looked around at the others: the detectives, the pink hedgehog and her friends, Rouge and Omega. All of them nodded solemnly back, accepting the challenge Shadow had thrown down.

Sonic took a deep breath, "All right then, lets get ready to do this. We'll show that creep the _real_ super power, of teamwork!"

The other teams scattered, spreading out along the edge of the platform. Amy scooped up a chunk of debris and used her hammer to bat it at Metal Sonic. "Take this, you creep!" she hollered at the monster.

With a bellow the robot swung its massive head to snap at her. The little rabbit snatched her up out of the way of the steel teeth - Shadow blinked in surprise; the rabbit could _fly_ with her long ears! The cat, meanwhile, had tied another piece of debris to the end of his pole-and-string contraption, and was alternately flinging the hunk of metal at the enemy and reeling it back in with the string. He probably wasn't doing much damage, but he was certainly annoying the thing. Amy kept lobbing junk at Metal Sonic with her hammer, until finally the robot caught the edge of the platform in its claws and tore it away. The little rabbit barely managed to snatch her friends away in time, hoisting them to still-solid floor. As the dragon began to heave itself after them, the little bee who was the detective agency mascot dove in, spinning around the robot's jaws and face until Metal Sonic abandoned its initial prey to snap at Charmy. As soon as he'd gotten the monster's attention, Charmy darted up the platform to rejoin his friends... or at least, the crocodile; the chameleon was nowhere to be seen. As the dragon's jaws snapped towards Vector the crocodile jumped up, then brought his full weight down on the metal snout. A flash of metal appeared from nowhere and bounced off a metal eyelid; if the monster hadn't blinked just then, it would have lost an optical sensor.

Metal Sonic tossed its head skyward, but now had a passenger; the crocodile was still clinging to the long muzzle, keeping the jaws clamped shut. When the dragon smashed its head back against the platform, Vector jumped off at the last moment, and another flash of metal _did _hit an eye this time. Unfortunately, the damaged sensor was simply pulled back into the beast's skull as an undamaged one slotted into its place. Vector had stumbled and fallen as he'd landed, but as the dragon lunged for the fallen crocodile, the chameleon appeared out of nowhere and threw another of the metal things at it. This one ricocheted off the metal hide and landed near Shadow's feet, giving him a chance to see it was a three-pointed star of metal, with a blade ground along the forward edge of each arm. He looked back in time to see Metal Sonic snapping at the chameleon, who went invisible again, as the crocodile scrambled clear.

"We're almost done here," Vector hollered to Shadow and his team, "now it's up to you!" Then he and the bee retreated post-haste, as Metal Sonic ripped off another chunk of the platform, failing to take either opponent with it.

The dragon swung its head towards Shadow and his companions as they began to move in its direction, bellowing, "This victory shall soon turn into despair!"

Shadow met its challenge with one of his own. "So _you're_ the one behind all this, huh?"

Rouge chimed in, "Consuming the power of others at your own will... and that's supposed to make you tough?"

Omega was business-like as always. "New target acquisition! Sights locked on Metal Sonic!"

The dragon just laughed as they advanced. "Even the Ultimate Life-Form can't stop me!" It dove for Shadow, jaws agape.

Shadow dodged to the side, feeling that the setting was wrong, that the metal before him should have been scaled flesh, at least mostly. He shoved the feeling away, knowing that any distraction could be lethal; he could feel the power of the Chaos Emeralds building behind him somewhere, and knew that to drain any of that energy now could be disastrous for Sonic and his friends. Without the Emerald to give him that extra edge - and the safety margin of the time-freeze - he didn't dare let the monster get too close.

Metal Sonic snapped at Shadow again, then feinted a third strike - but turned it into an attack on Rouge, who had been kicking at a shoulder joint. Omega was blasting away like mad, but Metal Sonic clearly had no fear of him; it was after all built out of parts of a ship that was impervious to most weapons. Shadow home-attacked the nape of the metal neck, distracting the dragon just before it caught Rouge. A blaze of golden light rose behind him, seen in the corner of his eye, and by the reflection off the monster - and felt by whatever within him was sensitive to Chaos energy.

As the beast bellowed and flapped skyward to challenge Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, Shadow sat down on the platform. "Sonic, we're counting on you!" he called, not really expecting them to hear.

Distantly he heard Metal Sonic's voice, "How appropriate to have a robot overlord rule a robot kingdom!" as the beast and the gold glow faded from sight among the dark clouds. He could just make out three figures amid the glow.

The battle was intermittently audible, but other than the odd gleam of golden light, was invisible to those who remained on the command ship. Rouge came and sat down beside Shadow, looking thoughtful. He glanced at her, curious. She looked over at him, started to speak, then clearly changed to something else. "So did you get all that? About Chaos and all?"

He shook his head. "I know Chaos Control is something I can do, and it's related to the Chaos Emeralds," he said, "but I didn't understand what the doctor was saying. This Sonic robot had the Emeralds before?"

"No." Rouge shook her head. "A while back, before the ARK incident, Doctor Eggman released this... being... called Chaos in Station Square. Chaos is where the Chaos Emeralds get their name from apparently, an ancient race who worshiped Chaos as a god brought the glowing stones as offerings. But, people being people, they grew greedy and tried to take the stones back. Chaos went wild and attacked them, and got imprisoned somehow in the Master Emerald. When Doctor Eggman let him out, he tried to take out his rage on Station Square. The point is, Chaos is a water monster that started out as a chao; all chao can reshape parts of themselves in the semblance of animals they encounter, but he can also control the shape of water and merge it with his own body. Somehow the cat's friend Froggy got mixed up with Chaos, and Metal Sonic managed to get the shape-shifting info from the frog and the chao that it had kidnaped. That's why Amy's group was here; some tabloid had snapped a photo of Metal Sonic running off with Big's Froggy and Cream's friend, and she thought it was Sonic, so they all three came looking."

"I see," said Shadow thoughtfully, although he wasn't entirely certain that he did. "But... this Chaos, if he was a chao then he's a living creature. Metal Sonic is a robot; how can it merge with the ship's metal?"

"I'm not sure," answered Rouge gazing out at the distant flickers of gold. "Like I said, Chaos can control and merge with water, and that's not alive either. But Chaos needed the Emeralds' power for that and I don't think Metal Sonic is using it?" She glanced back to Shadow and he shook his head. "On the other hand, you can access some of the Chaos powers without needing the Emeralds to help. Perhaps it took that from you... I don't know. I don't really understand it either, but it's a BIG mess."

"Literally," agreed the black hedgehog. The pair fell silent and sat watching as the battle drew closer again, until suddenly Metal Sonic's draconic form made a dash right over the platform the dokan (and the human and Omega) were resting on, and the gold-lit forms of Sonic and his friends collided with the monster. Suddenly, scraps of metal and plastic were showering down everywhere. Shadow and Rouge dove for the shelter of the closest shed, nearly colliding with Big, who had the same idea. The rain of debris continued for several minutes. Finally the cat said slowly, "Is it over?"

Rouge peered back out the door. "Yep," she said, "it appears to be." As Shadow and the cat followed her back out, one last object crashed onto the platform. Noting the silhouette, Shadow skated forward for a better look.

Metal Sonic, now not much larger than Shadow himself, lay sprawled across the metal floor. Made from polished steel and blue enamel, he bore a clear resemblance to Sonic the Hedgehog, but an even sharper resemblance to something else. Shadow frowned, then it came to him: this robot was the flip side of the Eggman statue they had seen at the castle. The glowing red eyes, the spike nose, the pointed spines; all matched the statue. _So it wasn't me after all_, he thought with relief.

A glow lit the area as Sonic and his friends descended slowly from above. Shadow noticed Sonic was now bright yellow, and wondered why that surprised him less than the fact that Tails and Knuckles were not changed in any way other than the golden auras that surrounded all three. As they landed and the golden glow faded, the robot stirred, dwindling further as it slowly propped itself on its arms and lifted its head. "It's no use," it said, the red eyes fixed on Sonic, "but _why _can't I defeat you?"

"Because," grinned the hedgehog, now back to his normal blue coloring, "we're Sonic heroes!"

"Sonic!" Amy's voice cut across the conversation and Shadow spotted her running towards them."

Sonic flinched slightly. "Anytime you want a rematch," he said hurriedly, "just let me know! I'll be waiting!" He darted off, at a speed that even Shadow found impressive.

The little fox was also backing away from the approaching girl. "Hey Sonic, wait up!"

Amy called something over her shoulder to her friends as she ran past. Shadow didn't listen, turning his attention instead to Rouge, who had come up to stand beside him, looking at the robot that had collapsed back to the platform. With a sigh, she complained, "All this for what? Nothing! I might as well go look for that Master Emerald, since that irritating ECHIDNA is here."

Shadow felt another brush of familiarity at that, not the words themselves, but the idea of her running off to steal others' treasures. "Heh!" he said feeling vaguely triumphant. "Some things never change, do they?"

Rouge gave him a mock glare. "Whaddaya saying? What else is a famous treasure hunter supposed to do?" She glanced over at Knuckles who was shaking his head at Sonic's sudden departure, and raised her voice as she turned to walk away. "I'm outta here too! I guess I'll go look for someone else's treasure!"

The red echidna jumped and spun around. "Man! She never gives up, does she?" He started after the bat, calling, "Oh no you don't! WAIT!"

Omega clomped over to pick up the fallen Metal Sonic as the detectives started chasing Doctor Eggman, the crocodile hollering something about money. As Omega started to carry the other robot away, Shadow noticed again the strange elongated star on the darkening horizon. It seemed noticeably larger than the night before.


	18. A New Life

17. A New Life

Shadow didn't know what Omega had done with Metal Sonic. He hadn't found out what Rouge had done with Knuckles either, but she'd returned smirking while he was looking over the edge of the platform and wondering how he was going to get back to the ground. Sonic had apparently taken the Chaos Emeralds with him, and Shadow didn't really want to try teleporting all the way down - just thinking about it gave him a nasty feeling. The bat had rummaged through the memory banks of a computer in one of the sheds, then led the way to a small escape plane in another of the low buildings. He'd spent the rest of the night on the couch in her Future City hotel room, then they'd flown to Central City the next morning.

Shadow was sitting there now, in an apartment used for presidential guests, trying to sort things out. He hadn't gotten to see much of the city. Rouge had somehow gotten them straight in to see the President of the country, which he didn't think was at all the usual way of things, and stressed that he, Shadow, might be in danger from secret enemies in the military or people who'd been frightened by the ARK incident. The President had decided to send Shadow quietly to this apartment building, the main doors of which were always guarded by Secret Servicemen - Shadow hadn't entirely understood that part, but apparently GUN didn't know they were in the service - and today Shadow was to return to the White House "with all pomp and ceremony due a great hero." He didn't understand that either, but Rouge had said that the more people knew of his return, the harder it would be for GUN to get to him without anyone noticing. So, here he was, sitting on a nice, bland couch, waiting for someone to come get him. "Breakfast was good, at least," he said out loud, tired of the silence. "And the bed was nice." He'd been tired enough that he'd gone straight on to sleep, at least, instead of staying up all night fretting. But now he wasn't sure what to do; someone was supposed to come for him, but it was all feeling a bit too much like a prison cell. He got up and paced to the window. Rouge had said that no one could see in, and he saw no reason to doubt her. He poked listlessly at the window frame, wishing he could open it. Finally free on Earth and he couldn't go out and enjoy it, let alone explore it. Exploring it was important; he needed to sit under a tree and think. There was a lovely open, grassy area just two streets away, lined with trees and faced by very grand-looking buildings, that would be just the thing. "I just wish I could remember _why _I need to sit under a tree and think." He frowned, a glimmer of another green space with trees and grass, and a fox cub - not the two- tailed one that was Sonic's friend... it was gone. He turned quickly, hearing footsteps in the hall outside.

"Shadow?" It was Rouge's voice that accompanied the light tap on the door. He moved eagerly across to unlock it and let her in. "Hey, handsome," she said gaily, "I've come to keep you company a bit; as soon as Sonic gets here, the President will send a limo to pick us up."

"Sonic?" Perhaps he could get the Chaos Emerald back then; that would go a long way towards helping him feel safer. But, "What's a limo?"

The bat grinned at him. "A very special car, for special people. Listen, there's probably going to be a lot of people and a lot of noise. Just bear with it, and when the president offers you a place to stay in Central City, say you'd rather make your own arrangements."

Shadow interrupted, "I thought you and he said that Central City was too dangerous for me to stay in?"

It is, we think," explained Rouge, "but if he offers you a place here, and you turn him down, then hopefully no one will think we've put you up somewhere else. You'll be going to Westopolis, and the President has arranged for a stipend for you, so you'll be able to buy things you need while you get adjusted."

"As long as I work for him?" asked Shadow skeptically.

"We're not going to force you to work for the government," Rouge said quietly, "but I really do think you'd be safer if you did." She seemed genuinely worried about that point.

Shadow sighed. "I _will _think about it, Rouge, but I can't promise to agree. The government is part of why I'm in this mess in the first place."

"Yes," said the bat unhappily, dropping her gaze.

There was an uncomfortable pause. Shadow tried to think of something to say; since he didn't really remember much before Rouge woke him up four days ago, he didn't have much in the way of small talk. "Oh," he said as he remembered something. The white bat looked up expectantly. "You'd started to ask, right before we triggered one of the self-destructs onthe Doctor's flagship, about a dark comet?"

Rouge blinked, then frowned thoughtfully. Shadow waited; there had been rather a lot going on at that point - not to mention shortly after. "Oh, yes," she said finally. "I wanted to know what you knew - if anything - about the Black Comet."

"Comet: a small ball made of ice and rock that typically has a regular but wildly elliptical orbit around its local sun. When it's near enough, the heat and solar winds cause a stream of gases and dust to form leading from the comet away from the sun; this is called the 'tail'." Shadow blinked. "That odd, stretched out star..." he realized.

"Right after the sun goes down? Yeah, that's the Black Comet," confirmed Rouge. "It's a bit odd for a comet, but its last approach would have been about the time you were– uh, born."

'_Were made'_, thought Shadow, _that's what she started to say. Something else to wonder about - was I cloned in the ARK, or on Earth, or am I really one of those androids we talked about, like the one in the Egg Hawk?_ But this Black Comet... He searched for any bit of memory relating to it and came up blank. Although, as he pointed out to her, "There are so many things I don't remember that it'd be MORE surprising if I _did_ recall the Black Comet."

Rouge sighed. "I suppose you're right. The problem is, there is something _very_ strange about that comet and no one knows what it is."

Shadow frowned. "They think there's something odd but they can't identify it?"

"No, we KNOW there's something odd - the files say so - but the actual information on WHAT is so odd has been removed. All we have is that it's unusually colored and has an orbit of about 50 years. And one of the older scientist insists that there was a mission sent to the comet last time, which exploded, but we don't even have information on that."

Shadow frowned again; something flashed in the depths of his mind, but was gone again like a fish in murky water. He realized the silence was starting to stretch again. "If I think of anything, I'll let you know," he promised. _Now what? Oh, I am the host here, aren't I? _"Um, would you like a drink or something?"

"Oh! Yes, please, a drink would be wonderful," Rouge pounced on the formal pleasantry with obvious relief. "What do you have?"

Shadow realized he had no idea. "Um," he said eloquently, skating to the refrigerator and pulling it open. He studied the contents. "Ah... Pepsi, orange juice, two percent, White Falls."

'Two percent? Two percent what?"

"Umm, two percent white stuff." He pulled out the plastic jug and held it so the bat could see it. The cap simply had '2' printed on top, and there was a date but no label.

Rouge laughed. "That's milk, Shadow, and the two percent is the measure of the milkfat in it. White Falls is one of those bottled waters, isn't it? I think I'll have one of those, please. After all, have to watch this girlish figure." She trailed a few fingers teasingly down one side.

Shadow saw the motion but totally missed the innuendo. He poured water into two glasses and handed her one. "Girls' figures are usually straighter than that aren't they? You're more curvy, like a woman," he objected.

Rouge choked on her water. She managed to get the glass down on the coffee table without spilling any more but she couldn't stop laughing long enough to stop coughing. Or maybe it was the other way around. She accepted a towel from Shadow, who hadn't the least clue what had set her off. She'd almost gotten herself under control, but a look at his honestly bewildered face set her off again.

"Is something wrong with the water?" he asked anxiously. "Mine tastes all right."

Rouge managed to get control of herself. "No, Shadow, the water is fine." She picked up her glass and took a sip as an excuse to look away from him before she started laughing again. "I just... thought of something funny."

"Oh." He sat down again. Then jumped up as someone knocked on the door.

"Mr. Shadow and Miss Rouge, your limo is downstairs," called a voice through the panels. Rouge stopped Shadow as he went to open the door and peeked through a small hole he hadn't noticed. "ID, please," she called back. After a moment she nodded and stepped back so Shadow could open the door.

A limo, it turned out, was a ridiculously long, black car, draped with tri-color cloth across the hood and along both sides. A man in a black uniform stepped forward as they left the apartment building and held the car door open for the two dokan. Shadow sighed to himself as he climbed into the back of the car; like so many things, it was scaled for humans twice his height. He didn't have long to fret, however. The car turned at the end of the first block and he realized they were heading right towards the green park he had seen from his window. As the car turned again onto the road bordering the park, he saw a throng of people - humans and dokans both - at the far end of the park, in front of the White House. He jumped as a pair of motorcycles roared past and turned on appallingly loud sirens; they dropped speed to match the limo's pace as soon as they were in front of it. He looked up sharply as the roof of the limo clicked, whirred, and began to lift up in the front and sink into the trunk behind him. He glanced desperately at Rouge, who was watching him with an amused look. "It's not going to eject us, is it?" he asked, remembering the ejection chutes in the Eggman's battleships.

Rouge shook her head, grinning at him. "No, they're not going to toss us out. Relax, Shadow. This is your celebration for being a hero, both for stopping the ARK last year and Eggman day before yesterday. Smile - if you can-," she looked a bit doubtful on that point and he scowled at her, "well, at least wave to people and try not to look so grim. And don't _worry_ - you're the Ultimate Life-form and no one out there _can_ do anything to you."

_Except GUN_, he thought, although he sat up on the seat back as she was doing and waved at the crowd which was now moving to line the streets. He couldn't bring himself to smile in front of so many strangers, but he did try to lighten his expression a little, and couldn't help a bit of preening as he heard people in the crowd yelling his name. "Shadow! Shadow! Yay, Shadow!" Rouge was smiling in that strange, knowing way she had, or blowing kisses to the crowd. As far as Shadow could tell, the crowd didn't know who she was, but no one really cared. The crowd had come to cheer someone and didn't really care who, and Rouge would always enjoy being the center of attention. _Unlike me. I wish this was over._

A few minutes later they arrived at a platform. The driver opened the door, and Shadow followed Rouge out. Another limo, which he hadn't even noticed behind him, opened and the President stepped out, followed by several more Secret Servicemen. Rouge discreetly steered the black and red hedgehog into his spot, while the crowd kept cheering his name. The President took center stage and looked sharply down the length of the park. With a sudden wave of his hand, more Secret Servicemen opened a path through the center of the crowd, and a blue blur streaked up it and jumped onto the platform next to Shadow.

"SONIC," the crowd roared, "**SONIC!!**" Shadow was practically deafened by the shouts, screams and whistles that followed the faker's arrival and folded his ears down as tightly as he could. He was honestly just as glad that they _hadn't_ made that much noise for him. Sonic of course, played to the crowd; like Rouge, he loved being the center of attention, and this time he didn't have to make himself so. Shadow watched his blue counterpart dance up and down the platform waving his hands over his head and wondered what would happen if he just slipped away. Certainly no one would notice his going. But now the President was stepping forward, raising his own hands.

Sonic and the crowd both subsided, the blue hedgehog flashing Shadow a grin as he fell back to join him. "Don't worry Shads," he said softly, "we'll get you though this."

Shadow bristled involuntarily at the suggestion that he needed help - but he also realized that he really did, so he told his ego to behave and fixed his attention on the President.

The human was making a speech to the crowd, reminding them of Eggman's threat to destroy the planet if the nations did not at once yield to him and submit to being reformed into the Eggman Empire. "... When we did not bow our knee to him, he used that terrible weapon to shatter the moon, threatening worse if we did not capitulate. But then the villain triggered a trap even he had not known existed, and one that he could not stop. The late Professor Gerald, mad with the loss of his granddaughter, had rigged the ARK itself to crash into the planet should the trap be sprung. This would have killed millions, and devastated the planet, destroying much of life as we know it... but it was halted. Not by strength of national arms, nor massed human or dokan might... but by two hedgehogs. One of them you know well, and knew before that day, a hero of the dokan themselves, who came to our aid when Chaos attacked the suburb of Station Square; the other was a mysterious unknown, who we all thought had offered the supreme sacrifice for people he did not know. But now we have discovered that although he was _willing _to give his life for the salvation of our world, that degree of sacrifice was not asked of him, and now he has returned. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Heroes of Earth: the hedgehogs Sonic and Shadow!"

The President stepped back as he indicated the pair with a flourish, and the crowd went wild. The noise when Sonic had arrived did not even begin to compare. Shadow, in fact, could not think of anything that compared; this was far worse than the trains in the tunnel under the badlands, which was the noisiest thing he could remember. Sonic had stepped forward again, waving and posing for the crowd, but Shadow stayed put. He refused to run away - which was what he really wanted to do - but he could not step forward, towards that mob. He folded his arms and glowered at Sonic, who seemed to be encouraging the noise to new heights. Several flashes of light made him blink, and he spotted a dokan raccoon with a camera. Now that he looked, he saw there were several others with both still and video cameras in the crowd, and several reporters, although no one was trying to report at the moment; there was no competing with the crowd.

But now the President was asking for quiet again, and gradually the noise died away. The human turned towards Sonic and stepped forward with his hand outstretched, "Sonic the Hedgehog, our nation has already extended its thanks to you, but is there anything else we can do to show our gratitude?"

Sonic shook the man's hand, grinning like an idiot. His voice, however was unusually respectful. "No sir, all I need is room to run. I just don't like bullies, or oppressors."

The President smiled and gestured to the crowd; again it parted down the middle. Sonic laughed with glee, bowed to the mob of people, then jumped off the stage and raced up the newly-opened aisle and away.

As the cheers inspired by this performance died away, the President turned back to Shadow. "Shadow the Hedgehog. We have _not_ had the opportunity to convey our gratitude to you, for preventing the ARK from colliding with Earth, so I tell you now: this nation, and indeed the world, is most grateful to you for saving so many lives and preventing the inevitable destruction and mayhem that would have resulted.. We can never truly repay you, but may we at least cover your expenses and provide you with accommodations here in Central City?" He held out his hand, as he had done with Sonic.

Shadow stepped forward to take the hand, cautiously, and his own received a warm clasp and short shake before being released. Remembering Rouge's instructions, he shook his head. "Thank you, Mr. President, sir," he answered, hoping he was using the correct protocol. "But, while I do not necessarily need as much room to run as Sonic," (he had a flicker of a circular hallway and skating it over and over), "I do feel the need for a bit more green space than most of your cities seem to have. _This_," he waved a hand at the park around him, "is nice, but I can hardly live out here. So I thank you, but," his mind scrabbled for a way to finish his impromptu speech, "I'd like to look around a bit more before I settle in any one spot." _Not the strongest finish, perhaps, but if anyone looking for me expects me to keep moving, maybe they'll be less likely to find me staying still in this Westopolis. Or not. But I can probably handle any human or dokan who attacks me anyway._ The President said a few more things, regretting that Shadow wouldn't take the offer, and offering assistance when he found a place he liked, then, after a final cheer from the crowd the human returned to his limo. Rouge at last moved forward and steered Shadow back to the car they had arrived in.


	19. An Old Life Returns

18. An Old Life Returns

The car took them back to the apartment building that Shadow had been staying in. "Come on, let's get you packed and out of here," Rouge said as the Secret Serviceman closed the door behind them."

"Packed?"

She gave him a puzzled look. "Yes, packed. You know... grab your toothbrush, cloth– well spare socks in your case, I guess. Stuff them in a bag... um, here." She pulled a paper bag out of the pantry and handed it to him.

"I don't have any spare socks. Although they did give me a toothbrush when I got here. And a hairbrush."

"Well, get those then... I'm going to have to take you shopping when we get to Westopolis."

"Are you coming with me?" The notion appealed to him. He could handle anything on his own, of course, but it would be easier if Rouge was willing to help. He stuffed toothpaste, toothbrush and hairbrush into the bag and looked around. Nothing else was his, or particularly personal.

"Is that it? Well, let's go then." She led him back to the elevator, but instead of getting out on the lobby level, they went down one more floor to the basement. Rouge unlocked a door and preceded him down a long flight of stairs.

Shadow frowned. "Is Westopolis underground?"

"Nah," Rouge answered. "There's a subway down here that'll take us to my jet. So anyone who's watching up top will think you're still in the building. Here we are." She pushed open a door at the bottom of the stairs, to reveal a small area with two benches on a platform about a track. A train sat waiting for them, a single car hitched to the engine.

The trip to the private landing field was short, and then the pair took Rouge's jet on to Westopolis. Westopolis had a larger cluster of very tall buildings than Central City had, and Rouge landed her jet neatly on top of one of these. To Shadow's private delight, it was near a large, green park; there were fewer of these in this city than in the capital.

He wasn't to have a chance to investigate the park yet, though. Rouge took him downstairs - a long way downstairs; there were about 30 floors to the building and his new apartment was on the fifth one from the ground. "Wouldn't an elevator have been easier?" he asked.

"Yes, but it doesn't go to the roof and I didn't feel like hunting all over for it," replied the bat. "Here you go, Shadow. This one's yours." She handed him a key.

He noted the number on the door, '524' and unlocked it. The room on the other side smelled unused, but nothing worse than dust. It contained the same sort of furniture as the place in Central City had - comfortable enough, but not fancy, and selected with an eye to hiding damage and stains. Rouge eyed the furnishings askance, then shrugged. Pulling open the refrigerator, then the cabinets, she ordered him, "Drop your bag in the bathroom and we'll go stock you up. And see it there's any toilet paper in there."

Shadow blinked, then quashed the automatic surge of rebellion that her tone triggered. He couldn't remember living in an apartment before - or anywhere really - so he'd probably be better off following her lead a bit longer. Rather than 'drop' his bag, he put the meager contents neatly on the counter by the sink and noted that there was only half a roll of toilet paper... and no towels. That triggered him to look into the bedroom, where the bed had a slick and shiny (at least under the dust) quilt, but no sheets. And the pillow was not at all what he was used to. _Odd, that. I can't remember ever having__** had **__a pillow _- the sofa cushion in Rouge's hotel suite hardly counted - _but I know this isn't the kind I had._ He stepped back out to the main room and reported his findings to the bat.

She had seated herself at the table and nodded as she jotted a few more things on the list she was making. "Right," she said finally. She handed him a thin rectangle of plastic. "Here. This is connected to your bank account; the one the government is paying your stipend into. It's actually a disaster relief card, but that's to make it a little harder to locate you. I'll show you how to see how much is on it while we're out." She stood up and stretched. "Ready?"

"Probably not. But, lead on."

He'd meant it facetiously, but as the day wore on - and on - he realized that he really hadn't been ready for this. The crowds of humans with occasional dokans mixed in pressed like a tangible force even when he wasn't actually among them. Rouge had decreed a stop for dinner and they sat now in a restaurant, safely separated from the crowds by a window, but the black hedgehog could still feel the swarms of people. He didn't quite shiver as he looked out the window at them, but he thought he'd rather take on a few more squads of Egg pawns then step back out after they ate.

He looked up and realized that Rouge had been studying him while he watched the crowd. She opened her mouth - then closed it again to flash a smile at the waiter who was putting their appetizers on the table. As the young man walked away again, she put one of the baked vegetables on each of the little plates that he'd left and slid one across to Shadow, who eyed it dubiously. "Try it," she urged, "they're good." She added a dollop of white sauce to the top of her own and bit into it. "Mmmmm," she purred. The she looked at him expectantly.

Shadow picked his up, feeling the warmth through his glove. He recognized the cheese on the top, at least, so he tentatively nibbled a corner of the vegetable underneath. Deciding it tasted okay he tried a larger bite and burned his mouth. He accepted the glass of ice water the bat offered, while pretending not to see the smile she couldn't quite hide. He ate the rest of his share with a bit more caution and decided that they really were as good as she'd promised.

"Weren't there people on the ARK?" Rouge asked suddenly.

Shadow looked up in surprise. He'd been watching the people on the sidewalk again while he ate. "What? Yes, of course there were. Why?"

"You keep staring like you've never seen them before. And all day you've been sort of shrinking into yourself, like you thought they were going to squash you. I was on the ARK; the passageways aren't that wide, so you ought to be used to walking with people."

"There weren't _that _many people," Shadow answered without thinking. "And I stayed mostly in the lab or Professor Gerald's wing..." He scrabbled after memories that, having come unbidden, were now fading away when he _tried_ to remember. "I... mostly went out... during work hours, I think, so there weren't many people in the corridors then."

He asked a question of his own before she could say anything else. "Why are there so few dokan out there? I thought there were supposed to be a lot of us?" He ended a little uncertainly, not sure of either the memory that suggested there were many, or of his right to include himself as one of the 'us'. He leaned back slightly to let the waiter place his meal in front of him, but didn't pick up his fork, waiting for Rouge's answer.

Rouge didn't seem to notice the uncertainty. "Historically these are 'human' lands, and _we_," she winked at him, and he realized she had picked up his hesitation after all, "live mainly in the south. There are a lot of islands there, and innumerable theories - ours and theirs - about how the dokan, being smaller and hardier, managed better on smaller islands where there wasn't enough food, shelter, wood, _et cetera_ for humans to thrive, whereas the larger humans could hold more land and resources on the mainland areas than the bands of dokan... Anyway, officially, the southern hemisphere is dokan-controlled and the northern hemisphere is human. But there are individuals and small groups of each in most major cities belonging to the other group. If you go south, you'll see crowds of dokan with a few humans towering through them."

The bat's aqua eyes considered the mob of humanity moving past the restaurant. "Actually," she corrected herself, "you won't see anything like that anywhere in the south. We don't live in such big cities, so you'll never see that many dokan crowded together. But the crowds you do see do have a few humans among them."

After the meal, she led him back into the crowds and - finally - home. _Strange how it became 'home' so fast; maybe it's really more 'haven'_, he thought. Certainly it felt like a shelter from the people out there. Rouge helped him put away the groceries and distributed towels, pans and cleaning supplies while he made the bed, then waved him a cheery goodbye and left. Shadow sank down onto the couch, feeling the sudden emptiness sloshing around him. At least while Rouge was around he hadn't had time to think about his real situation; she'd kept him focused on the superficial things, and away from the deeper problems.

Which was probably intentional. He had an idea that the bat did very little by accident. Although in this case, he couldn't really see what she hoped to gain from helping him - his joining the government as a spy? They might end up working together, but he really didn't have any skills that lent themselves to spying. A bodyguard, perhaps, but she certainly didn't need one, so he didn't see how that would benefit her._ I don't know enough about what's going on here. I need more information. _He sighed and rubbed at his face. _So. Think logically. _(An echo through his brain of an elderly male voice, "Think logically, Maria. Any problem can be solved if you approach it in a logical fashion.") He snorted to himself. _Emotions aren't particularly logical, professor._

With a sigh he lay back on the couch, staring at the ceiling. _So. I have a place to stay, an income of sorts, and... not much else. Friends, I suppose, in Rouge and maybe Omega, wherever he's gotten to. I... _

_I, yes. I am Shadow the hedgehog and I came from the ARK, probably. I was created - modified? - somehow by Professor Gerald. And I saw Maria killed, who was –who I am told was his granddaughter. Mmph._ He grimaced at the ceiling._ Most of what I know about myself is hearsay. I __**know**__ I saw a blonde, human girl killed in a lab, in space, and that her name was Maria. And I __**know**__ my name is Shadow the Hedgehog. And that's it really. So, be logical. How can I find out more? _

"The library," he said out loud. Rouge had pointed it out on their whirlwind tour of the stores and mall. "Rouge said they had computer resources there; I can go there tomorrow and see what I can learn about the ARK incident." There probably wouldn't be much from the original disaster, since it had been covered up, but the bat had said there were a lot of exposé reports after it had nearly crashed into the planet. Feeling better for having made a decision and a plan, he got off the couch and headed for the bed that was now his. The new pillow was exactly like the one he didn't remember having.

The next day was rather a disaster. He found the library easily enough, but the computer access required a library card, and the card required proof of his address, which he didn't have. The lady behind the desk was apologetic but insisted she couldn't let him on the computers without the card. She did direct him to a section that contained a few books about the ARK coverup. Unfortunately, the first was so utterly conspiracy-mad and clearly fantasy that he didn't bother to even look at the other two. _Yeah, right. The GUN leader on-station was running all those secret tests on alien slaves - pink aliens, brought in by the grey one that was conspiring with him - so that he could mind-control all the dokan and use them as soldiers to overthrow the human governments. _ He didn't think there had been a GUN leader on station, although clearly there had been at least a few soldiers. But the mindset of that author just left a bad taste in his mouth. _Narrow-minded, dokan-phobic._ The author had several times insisted that all the dokan should be banished from human lands, and preferably rounded up and confined in their own, to prevent their conquering humans. Because obviously they would, since three thousand years ago the Echidnan Empire had ruled the dokan races.

Shadow stepped out of the library and was nearly flattened by a guy on a bicycle, who threw a curse back over his shoulder as he sped on past the sign reading 'No skateboards, skates, motorized vehicles, or bicycles'. Yesterday Rouge had maneuvered through the crowds easily enough, but today the black hedgehog kept getting bumped and jostled. One young man apologized, but most of the humans growled, swore, or ignored him entirely. His own attitude towards humans souring by the minute, Shadow managed to fight his way as far as the park near his building. He stepped thankfully into the open green space, gladly inhaling the scents of the grass and trees that managed to fight through the stench of exhaust fumes. He walked out further, away from the noise and smells, pausing to consider an odd, roughly square area of pounded red dirt with a tall fence framing one corner, then moving on to a small pond. A few large, orange-and-white fish appeared hopefully in front of him, their wide mouths gaping just at the surface of the water - but when he did nothing but look at him they slipped back away under the lily pads. He looked around and spotted a tree on top of a low rise, a few of the ubiquitous golden rings hovering a foot above its roots. He walked over and picked them up, feeling his inner turmoil mellow slightly as the rings evaporated in his hand. He sat down with his back against the rough bark, trailing his gloved fingers through the slim blades of grass. The city sounds seemed very far away, here. Tipping his head back, he looked up at the sun filtering through the leaves and felt more peaceful than he had since he'd awakened.

He sat up suddenly, realizing that he'd fallen asleep against the tree trunk. The wind had picked up, and the sun was setting behind the buildings west of him, but he didn't think either of those had awakened him. Something just felt... wrong. And he had a vague feeling that someone had called his name.

Frowning, he got to his feet and moved to the lip of the ridge the tree was growing on. Another gust of wind brought a discarded newspaper up to wrap around his leg; he looked down to read the words, "**FIRE-IN-THE-SKY Celebration!** 50 Year Return of the Black Comet!" He looked back to the city as the squeal of brakes and angry voices rose in the distance, and the paper spun away on the next gust of wind.

_A dark wind_, he thought, _if there is such a thing; stirring up dark memories._ Which reminded him how dark his own few memories were. "Shadow the Hedgehog," he whispered to himself. "Why does that name haunt me? It's the only thing I can remember. And that gruesome image..."

_Shadow was pulling Maria on as fast as she could go, hearing nothing now over their own breathing and the pounding of their feet on the floor and his heart in his ears when - "Stop!" a voice rang out behind them._

_Shadow glanced back at Maria panting desperately behind him, looked beyond her to see a quartet of soldiers in the doorway. Then, the girl stumbled. Her hand pulled free of Shadow's grip. He skidded to a stop and looked back again to see her hesitate, looking back, then start towards him again; the lead soldier raised his gun... and fired._

"_Maria!!"_ He didn't realize at first he'd cried the last aloud, overlaying the memory of his call then. He shivered a little as he wind gusted again, colder than before. Not that he was cold; he was barely aware of the wind, caught again in his own dilemma. "Who _am_ I," he asked aloud, "and why can't I remember anything? And who is this Maria?" His sister, he knew - _knew,_ to the depths of his being - but now he asked, as he had not before, how a human _could_ be sister to a hedgehog. There was more to the story and he had known it once... What was _**that**_!?

The clouds that had rolled up with the chill wind suddenly boiled up faster, red-lit from within as they began to roil and spin. A central eye, like that of a hurricane, opened in the center, and dark shapes began to drop through it, first a few, then more and more until there was a downpour of alien figures over the city. For alien they unmistakably were; mostly humanoid, though bulking larger than any human or dokan, but strange avian and massive vermiform silhouettes as well. The people on the street closest to Shadow screamed and scattered as a giant shape landed on top of a parked car, then batted a moving one aside as if it were paper. Massively overmuscled in its torso and spike-crowned shoulders, the creature was covered in glossy black scales highlit with purple iridescence like a grackle's wing, marked with red on its arms and legs. The head was almost absurdly small, snakelike, with large blank eyes.

Shadow sneered at the fleeing humans. "Hmmph. Look how pathetic they are." They fled, every man for himself, knocking down and trampling those who were in their way. "I don't have time for these humans." And now, explosions were going off around the city. He turned to leave. The rain of aliens was mostly in front of him so the way back was clear –then a voice spoke his name.

"Shadow." The voice was deep and commanding, and Shadow stopped in spite of himself to look for the source. A strange starfish-like thing tumbled over the top of the ridge and hung in midair in front of him. A single, central eye fixed him with a yellow stare, then refocused slightly to project an image of a massive alien. Tall, roughly humanoid in appearance from the waist up, the being regarded him out of three glowing red eyes. Long horns extended to each side of its head, and a crown of shorter ones projected from the top of the skull. It wore a massive chain necklace and gold-trimmed black robes, which trailed off at the bottom of the projection. "As you can see, the day of reckoning will soon be here." Shadow wasn't certain if the voice was coming from the projection or the starfish. "Find the seven Chaos Emeralds and bring them to me, as promised."

"Huh?" Shadow instinctively rebelled at being so casually ordered by an unknown person. "Who are you, and how do you know I'm Shadow?" he demanded. "And what are you talking about?"

Ignoring the questions, the projection swept past him, trailing the starfish. A sudden flurry of nearby explosions knocked Shadow off balance as he tried to follow. By the time he recovered, both projection and creature had vanished.

"Just what was that all about?"_ How could that - thing - know anything about me?__** But he knew who I was**_ That decided him, at least half way. "If he says he knows who I am, then like it or not, I have to believe him. The only way I'm going to get the secrets to my past, is to get those Chaos Emeralds!" He turned and dashed down the hill, out of the park.


	20. One for Sorrow, Two for Joy

19. One for Sorrow, Two for Joy

It was all very well to say he was going to find the Chaos Emeralds, thought Shadow, but how was he going to do it? He had an idea that he could tell if they were close, but the only one he'd actually found to date had been in that... pocket dimension. If they were in those... how was he to find them? _I didn't sense that key until I opened the box, and in all this... how would I know where to start looking? _Although he had a strong feeling that he'd just picked one up somewhere... _Wait, Rouge said that there had been three in a GUN vault somewhere, that time she got trapped and I rescued her. So apparently they aren't always in the pocket dimensions. Which brings me back to, how do I find them? _He dodged sharply left, throwing up an arm to protect his face, as a wide beam of light shone down from the swirling clouds and the building to his right exploded. _This is not a good place to start, I think. Best to get out of town - or at least away from the invasion - to figure this out. _

Suiting action to thought, he kicked on his hover shoes and skated rapidly down a side street, weaving around cars and chunks of buildings. Around him, many buildings were already charred or aflame from repeated laser strikes. He noted several human bodies in passing but most of the people seemed to have fled; in spite of what he'd seen earlier, all these bodies were clearly bodies - any merely injured had either fled on their own or been assisted out of the area. He grimaced as he caught site of a dokan arm protruding from under a concrete slab. And now over the noise of the explosions he heard the sharp sound of gunfire. Rounding a corner - he had to, for an entire skyscraper had come down, crushing several smaller buildings beneath it and blocking the road entirely - he came upon his first aliens other than the starfish-thing. Unlike the projected image, they were naked, hornless and apparently mindless. One was trying to attack a human painted on the side of a building as part of a mural. The other two were smashing a jeep; a pair of uniformed bodies lay sprawled nearby. A third uniformed human crouched in the meager shelter of a newspaper box. Shadow felt a chill as he recognized the arm patch on the uniforms: a capital G with an arc of stars above it - Guardian Unit of Nations - GUN. These were members of the group that had murdered Maria. He ducked behind an abandoned car, feeling a confused surge of rage and fear. He wanted very much to attack the man, in retaliation for all the anguish and suffering they'd caused him; at the same time he wanted to run for his life, before they trapped him again and tormented him further. Suddenly the human was flung back by another explosion; as he sprawled lifeless in the street nearby, Shadow glimpsed his face - which seemed barely older than Maria's.

_Stop. __**Think**__, Shadow. Who are 'they'? That was fifty years ago!_ He stared at the young face beneath the helmet. _That boy couldn't possibly have had anything to do with Maria's death, he wasn't even born then!_ Getting his emotions back under control, he peeked out again at the aliens. The one had finally smashed enough of the wall that it didn't seem to recognize the human image any longer, and was stumping off to look for other prey. The two that had been demolishing the jeep had apparently been victims of the same explosion that had killed the human soldier. Shadow left his hiding place and started off again, in the opposite direction from the surviving alien.

"Hey! Shadow!" The call came from an alley to his right. He looked over to see Sonic running towards him.

"Hey Shadow, long time no see!" Shadow frowned; hadn't they just seen each other a day or so earlier? But Sonic was continuing, "Looks like these black creatures really mean business. Let's you and me show them a thing or two!" When Shadow failed to respond, the blue hedgehog urged him further, "C'mon, we've got to stop these things before they destroy the city!"

Shadow blinked at him in disbelief. "_Before_ they destroy the city? I think–" he broke off and they both jumped for the alley in response to another laser beam striking down nearby. "I think they already have." He glanced pointedly at the rubble that had been an 'Urgent Care Clinic' moments before; now, only the sign was recognizable. Whatever 'Urgent Care' was, the building certainly could use some.

"Uh, well," Sonic scrambled for a moment, then came up with a response, "but, we can still slow them up to let the people evacuate!" He grinned far too cheerily for Shadow's taste - but then the blue hedgehog's whole personality was more over the top than the black's, as he'd demonstrated during the president's ceremony. "Come _on,_ Shadow, there are people dying out there! Catch up when you can." He darted off.

"Sonic, wait!" Too late. Shadow scowled after the other hedgehog. He'd wanted to ask about the Chaos Emeralds. Growling to himself he started skating again. He was following Sonic, but only because they were both on the main street - he wasn't _following_ him. And then...

Shadow turned his head, trying to block out the noisy chaos around him. There'd been a glimmer... There. He skated a few yards and lost it again. Frowning with concentration, he began seeking like a hound questing for a fox, catching something that wasn't quite a sound, nor exactly a touch, and then losing it again. He ducked one of the odd, flying aliens, vaguely owl-like as it swooped past on its featherless red wings, then jumped up and home-attacked it when it persisted in trying to attack him. _Drat! Where is it?_

_There!_ He picked up a stronger trace, skating towards it with ever faster strides. He could feel it now, pulling him on, _almost there..._ He whipped around a corner to find a GUN squad besieged by the dark-skinned aliens. A truck that looked like it was made out of a solid piece of metal stood in the center of the squad, who had set their backs to it as they fired at the monsters. Two more of the scaly, iridescent black fliers circled and dove at the trapped humans, attacking with red-vaned wings and teeth. Shadow swung wide around the melee, but had to turn back - the power he sensed was in there; either in the possession of one of the combatants or in the truck itself.

_Sonic will be delighted_, he thought dryly as he started attacking the closest of the bipedal aliens. _I'm helping the humans._ He bounced off the crimson-crested head of one of the monsters, snapping its neck, then aimed higher, picking off the flying creatures one after the other. The humans continued shooting at the other ground-bound aliens but didn't seem to have much effect. Shadow had to hope that they wouldn't shoot him as he tackled the attackers one by one. At least his homing attacks bounced him up out of the way between strikes. The last few creatures had taken down the defenders at the back of the truck and torn the doors off before Shadow took them down. Before the bewildered humans could regroup, the black hedgehog ducked into the vehicle and claimed his prize; a shining blue gem larger than his fist. It wasn't the one he'd won from the Doctor's castle, but it was unmistakably a Chaos Emerald.

_That's one._ He felt the power emanating from the gem and drew some of it in, sluicing away his tiredness. _Ahhh. Much better. Now for the next one._ He 'asked' the cut crystal in his hand and felt a strong urge to go left. Mostly left. With the clouds hiding the sun he didn't know which direction was which, but he started working his way across the city, following the gem as well as he could. He couldn't simply go straight across because of the intervening buildings and battles. Then, he came to a massive pit, dropping into darkness in front of him. The road jutted a few inches over the pit, then ended jaggedly; he could just see the continuation on the far side of the pit. For once, there wasn't a single gold ring in sight. Grumbling, he backtracked to the last cross-street and started trying to work his way around the hole.

He kept coming across parties of the aliens, which he ignored unless they attacked him. The avian ones invariably attacked, but the others seemed less interested in him. As one such party pondered him from half a block away and turned away he sensed something coming up behind him. Turning quickly, he saw it was the flying starfish.

"You are late, Shadow," rumbled the deep voice. "From now on my Eye shall follow and observe you for me." The creature went on, but Shadow ignored the rest of the speech and continued down the road with the 'Eye' gliding behind him. Another knot of combat came into sight, humans and aliens, and a lone dokan wolf. These were not soldiers, but apparently civilians who had been unable to flee fast enough; they were armed with kitchen knives and a few poles. One man carried a broken signpost, which hit the alien attackers with a satisfying clang - until the alien snatched it out of his hand and snapped the metal pole in two. A small form ducked around a knife-waving woman and slung a couple of stones at the aliens before she shoved the child behind her again. The flash of the little girl's blonde hair decided Shadow, and he charged into action. In a flash the aliens were down and the people were fleeing again, calling thanks over their shoulders as they went. The Eye caught up with him and began ranting at him for attacking its warriors.

"Who are you, anyway?" the black hedgehog asked, ignoring the rebuke. "Why are you here?"

"We have told you," was the answer. "The day of reckoning will soon be here and we must have the–"

"–seven Chaos Emeralds, I know. But _who_ are you? And that creature you projected at me in the park?"

"I am Doom's Eye, the servant of the all-powerful leader Black Doom, who has brought the Black Arms to take over this pitiful planet. If you will help us, Black Doom will see that your memories are restored to you, and grant you power second only to his on this planet," the starfish announced grandly.

"Black Arms? All the arms I've seen so far are red," Shadow objected. He'd thought the first group were red to the elbows with human blood, but when every one he saw proved to be similarly marked, he'd realized it was their natural coloring. Even the wings of the avians were red, in fact.

The other ignored the comment. "Our race is marked by jet black and crimson skin, as are you.

"You have found one of the Emeralds already; that is good. Now you must bring us the rest. I have been sent to assist you."

Shadow frowned as he started up the street again. "So, whose voice am I hearing, Black Doom's or yours?" Sometimes the starfish seemed to talk for itself and sometimes about itself, but the voice was the same.

"There is no time for idle talk. Find the Chaos Emeralds!" was the not-very-satisfactory reply.

'_One for sorrow, two for joy'_, Shadow found the little song running inanely through his head, a girl's voice - Maria's? - singing the words. _'Three for a girl, four for a boy.' I need seven_, he thought. _What's seven for? _But the snippet of song just kept starting over again after four. He tried the next road, turning back up towards the pull of the second Emerald. This one looked passable, at least as far as he could see. The chasm did reach this far, but had narrowed enough that he could leap across it, with a bit of a boost from the blue Emerald. Picking up his pace he managed to leave Doom's Eye behind. He was collecting the Chaos Emeralds, but he wasn't entirely sure he was going to hand them over once collected. He glided through a set of the golden rings without really noticing, only vaguely aware of the energy boost. He came to another knot of soldiers and aliens; this time the GUN forces seemed to be handling the invaders, so he merely knocked down an avian that tried to attack him and kept going. The road passed through a tunnel under several of the buildings, and he picked up his pace still more, wary of being trapped if the lasers struck while he was going through. Several people in some other sort of uniform were there, unloading crates of supplies and placing barricades. As he jumped over the barricades and skated back out into the open road, he heard that annoying hail again.

"Hey, Shadow!" Sonic raced up alongside, feet pounding furiously but showing no sign of effort as he kept pace with Shadow's fast glide. "You made it! Man, no matter how many we defeat they still keep coming - Shadow! Give me a hand!" They rounded a corner and ran headlong into a squad of the Black Arms' ground troops. Instantly both hedgehogs took the offensive. The aliens did as well; they seemed to have no inkling of defensive fighting methods. They were far too slow to hinder the hedgehogs, and in a blur of blue and black the invaders were defeated.

Shadow landed just long enough to reorient on the Chaos Emerald and was off again. "Hey, wait!" cried Sonic. Shadow didn't, but the blue caught up with him anyway. "All the citizens in this area have been evacuated. I feel so sorry for them. Where are you going anyway?"

Shadow hesitated a moment, then shrugged mentally. "I need to get the Chaos Emeralds to help me regain my memory," he replied.

Sonic blinked, then frowned. "Your memory? I didn't know they did that. What's wrong with your memory?"

"It's missing," Shadow answered shortly. After a moment he relented and elaborated slightly. "Look, I remember my name and Maria dying," - _and possibly being an android, unless that __**was**__ just a dream_ - "and that's it, okay?"

"Oh," said Sonic, startled. He ran alongside in silence a few moments, then said, "That's pretty tough, Shadow. At least you need to have some sort of happy memories. I can help you gather them, if you like." He glanced a bit uncertainly at the demolition around them as he spoke.

Shadow saw the glance, and realized the other hedgehog was torn between helping a 'friend' - although he was none too sure how he'd gotten included in _that_ category - and helping a lot of strangers, who honestly needed the help a lot more than Shadow did. "That's not necessary," he said. "I can manage, and they need your help more than I do."

Sonic relaxed slightly and grinned. "Of course you can, you're the Ultimate Life-form! It's just up ahead, you know."

"Yes." Shadow could feel it perfectly well. He braked to a walk, scanning the storefronts to the left of the road... there. He stepped cautiously through the shattered glass and metal of what had been a barred door. The only damage seemed to be in front, suggesting that it was caused by the invasion rather than looters. Glass cases lined the walls and circled a central space, gold and gems glittering on draped velvet. In the exact center, in a prominent display case, the green Chaos Emerald gleamed gently on a backdrop of midnight blue velvet. Shadow considered the case a moment, then jumped back as Sonic stepped forward and smashed a bar, broken from the door or window, into the case. It took several blows before the top of the case broke free, and the blue hedgehog stepped back with a little bow.

Shadow smirked at him, and claimed the second item of his quest. "Thank you," he said quietly.

"No problem," grinned Sonic, "just _please_ don't tell Amy you saw me in a jewelry store or she'll be _certain_ I was looking for an engagement ring!"

"I promise," said Shadow with a small smile of his own. With a last look around they stepped out through the broken door again. And directly into the path of an alien attack force.


	21. The City Invaded

20. The City Invaded

Immediately the two hedgehogs leapt back into motion, making short work of their opponents. Shortly, there were no more bipedal aliens in the vicinity, and Sonic was chasing the last bird-thing up the road. With a wary glance up and down the now-vacant street, Shadow pulled out the Chaos Emeralds to try and determine where the next could be found.

And was promptly interrupted. "Now that was sweet, Shadow!" crowed Sonic, clapping the startled black hedgehog on the shoulder as he returned.

Shadow scowled and put the Chaos Emeralds away quickly. "Yeah," he agreed sourly. "Well, I'm not here to save you." He didn't really want Sonic chasing him all over, but he wasn't sure how to get rid of him. Maybe if he insulted him enough...

But Sonic didn't seem at all insulted; rather, Shadow's reply seemed to amuse him. "Thought you might say something like that. How about a little friendly competition?"

_Competition? In the middle of an alien invasion and my own search for the Chaos Emeralds, he wants to __**race**_ Shadow scoffed, "Don't waste my time." He started to walk away.

Suddenly, Doom's Eye scooted up to him. "We've found the third Chaos Emerald in this city. Our mission here is done. Now get going!" The thing jetted away like an airborne octopus.

Sonic crowed with delight. "Guess that means... welcome to the next level! Let's go!"

"Get back here!" demanded Shadow as the blue dokan ran off. Sonic ignored him, of course, leaving the black hedgehog with no recourse but to follow.

Shadow caught up with Sonic quickly enough, ignoring his taunt - "Shadow, where've you been, slowpoke?" Their target became clear very quickly. A large black vehicle - clearly alien in design - was flying rapidly through the city. On the narrower streets it kept colliding with buildings, which slowed but did not appear to damage it, but it seemed to be heading for a specific goal. Sonic realized where it was going. "It's heading for the bypass, Shadow!" he called. "If it gets up the onramp it'll be able to go full speed, I'll bet; at any rate it'll have room to move without hitting things. We have to stop it before then!"

Shadow nodded. He didn't need to use the other two Emeralds to feel the one in the vehicle ahead; it was calling to him clearly. He increased his speed and the other hedgehog kept pace. Occasionally, one or the other swerved slightly to scoop up a line of the golden rings, increasing their energy levels a bit, but careful not to lose sight of their target. The black vessel blasted some fallen rubble out of its way and turned onto a wider road. Immediately it picked up speed. Shadow heard startled yells ahead as it crashed through a GUN squad waiting in ambush; unfortunately they were expecting an attack from the other direction. The alien vessel roared on through the belated hail of gunfire, not deigning to retaliate. The two dokan ran through the ambush themselves, causing confused yells of "There he is!" and "'Don't shoot Sonic!" Shadow glanced at his companion in spite of himself.

Sonic caught the glance and snickered. "A little fame can do wonders!" he called tauntingly. "Whoa!" He windmilled frantically as a bomb went off in front of them, opening a pit. Shadow had to do a frantic back-pedal himself so that he didn't fall in. The vessel sailed serenely away down the street, occasionally blasting rubble out of it's way. "Dropping bombs while running away?" exclaimed the blue indignantly. He darted down a side street. Shadow followed, and found the blue under attack by an alien squad. He jumped in, attacking the Black Arms from behind. As the last one fell the hedgehogs turned to resume their chase, but now they were in a maze of fallen buildings, and the tank was nowhere in sight.

Shadow saw a launch stand for a message rocket and blinked at a sudden memory. "Hey, Sonic! Grab on!" he called.

"What?" asked the puzzled blue hedgehog. He stepped closer, looking at the rocket in confusion.

That was all Shadow needed. He took firm hold of the rocket with one hand and with the other hit the trigger and grabbed Sonic's wrist. Before the blue could do more than yelp in surprise, the rocket had hauled them both fifty feet into the air. Sonic was briefly startled, then yodeled in delight. "Yahoo!" he yelled as the rocket soared higher. Then the boost cut out and it released its parachute so that the message - or in this case the passengers - could float safely to the ground. As they drifted down, Shadow spotted some odd things he hadn't noticed before. There were a number of glowing red trails that looked like some form of solidified slime connecting various levels of fallen buildings or bridges. Also some of the buildings themselves seemed to have been... infected... by the slime, their mid-sections attenuated and twisted as they pulsed with red light.

"Look there!" cried Sonic.

Shadow nodded. "I see it." The alien vessel was cruising along three roads over. He let go of the rocket and dropped onto a roof. With Sonic following, he ran along the roof looking for a spot where he could jump to another building across the street. Then spotted a line of GUN Beetle robots - small, armed, flying drones lined up across the street as they patrolled. Without hesitation, the black hedgehog jumped into the air and performed a series of homing attacks, hitting every other Beetle and using them as a bridge to cross. He heard the blue hedgehog's indignant yell, but by the time he landed on the opposite roof, Sonic was halfway across, using the patrol robots he'd skipped.

"GUN is going to be furious with you," Sonic warned Shadow as he landed, although his green eyes were flashing with mischief and amusement.

"Me? You took out half of them yourself," retorted Shadow, as they resumed their pursuit.

They caught up with the craft easily enough, but as they quickly discovered, stopping it was no simple matter. Sonic the Idiot Hedgehog actually dashed ahead of the craft, turned round and held up a hand, yelling "Stop!" To Shadow's complete lack of surprise, the craft continued right on over his head, leaving him staring stupidly after it, quills tossing in its wake. The black hedgehog snorted as he glided past, then leapt into a homing attack - and discovered that the vessel had a forcefield shield. He whacked the shield a few times, but couldn't tell if he was accomplishing anything, so he dropped back to the ground. Sonic darted past him, whooping as he jumped up to bounce on the forcefield himself.

Shadow dropped back slightly, watching. Every time the blue hedgehog impacted the shield, it flared briefly with blue light, then vanished again. And it seemed to be shifting color slightly... getting an idea, Shadow tapped the Emeralds' power and could feel the slight drop in energy each time the shield was hit. At this rate though, the two hedgehogs would be pounding on the thing for several miles, plenty of time for other aliens to come to the vessel's aid.

Even as he thought that, a group of aliens jumped out from behind a nearby rubble heap, several marching towards Shadow, two opening fire on Sonic with some sort of alien weapons. One missed the bouncing hedgehog but hit the shield, causing a much larger drop in its power. Shadow promptly flattened his attackers and went for the armed pair, snatching up their guns as they fell. Taking aim at the side of the ship away from Sonic, he pulled the trigger, shooting a wide red laser bolt at the craft. Rather predictably, the blue hedgehog overreacted. With a yelp he abandoned his attack and landed beside Shadow.

"What're you trying to do," he demanded indignantly, "barbeque me?"

"I'm trying to stop that ship," answered the Ultimate Life-form calmly. "Here, give me a hand." He offered the second gun to Sonic.

Sonic skipped sideways like Shadow was trying to hand him an activated grenade. "Oh no, you wouldn't catch me dead with one of those things! Just, be careful, already!" He jumped back to resume his attack on the ship.

"I _was _being careful," grumbled Shadow under his breath, feeling a sudden urge to 'just miss' the other. _Better not, I'm not familiar with how precise this thing's aim is. Wouldn't want to hit him by accident, what's her name - Amy - would kill me,_ he decided with a tinge of regret. So, again aiming well clear of Sonic, he emptied both guns against the shield, which was now definitely damaged. Tossing the now-useless weapons away, he scanned his surroundings.

There! A stack of wooden crates near a GUN truck caught his attention. Before he could do anything, he heard a voice cry out, "Black hedgehog spotted! Stop him!" He dodged frantically as a hail of bullets whipped towards him, forcing him to take cover behind a broken wall.

"Why is GUN after _us_ now?" A rather shocked-looking Sonic darted in behind him. "Shadow, what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" Shadow was feeling a bit panicked. "You don't think it's because of those Beetles, do you?" Surely even GUN wouldn't be that petty. Besides, with everything going on, how would they even know?

"Beetles?" Sonic sounded puzzled. "Oh, those. Nah, that's too stupid even for GUN." Shadow was a bit surprised by the scorn in the other's voice. Did Sonic have a grudge against the Guardian Units as well? Sonic seemed to pick up on Shadow's confusion. "Dunno if you knew this, but when Eggman first let you out of the GUN base, and you started collecting the Chaos Emeralds last time around, those idiots arrested _me_ for the theft! Because _obviously _since the security cameras showed a black-and-red hedgehog, a bright blue hedgehog must be the culprit. Man, I hate little cages." He shivered involuntarily, and Shadow felt a slight surge of kinship with the blue hedgehog; certainly he could sympathize with a dislike of cages.

But this was hardly the time to reminisce, even if he'd had any memories of his own to share. Looking around, he spotted one of the red slime trails ending only a few feet behind them. It seemed to run the same direction the ship had been heading. Tentatively, he touched it with a gloved hand. The pulsing that was visible in the dim red glow it emitted was also palpable, it felt almost as if the thing were breathing, or had a heartbeat. Climbing onto a broken piece of wall he stepped cautiously onto the slime as Sonic watched. Immediately he began sliding forward - the slime was pulling him towards the far end. He jumped off, but there was no difficulty in leaving the trail; it wasn't sticky and didn't hold him in place. Exchanging a glance with Sonic he got back up and let it pull him, riding it as he had ridden the rails in Doctor Eggman's canyon base. The other hedgehog got up behind him and the slime trail whisked them away. There were a few shouts as the GUN soldiers spotted them, but the pair were out of sight among the buildings before any shots could be fired.

As it turned out the rail not only paralleled the alien craft's course, it crossed over it, and it moved them fast enough that they caught up with the vehicle. Sonic dove off the slime to resume his homing attacks on the rapidly fading shield; Shadow targeted a pair of aliens standing near their own version of a supply depot. Grabbing as many of the alien guns as he could manage, he ran out into the road in time to see the shield die in a flare of green light - and the ship itself come to a dead halt. Without waiting to see why it had stopped, Shadow opened fire, pumping the full charges of three laser guns into the craft with no visible effect - until it suddenly exploded.

Sonic yelped as his target disintegrated mid-attack but managed to land on his feet. Doom's Eye erupted out of the demolished craft. "WHAT do you think you are doing, Shadow?" it demanded.

"Hand over that Chaos Emerald, or else," snapped Shadow.

There was a brief pause, then the alien chuckled grimly. "So, think you have a chance against ME... do you?"

Shadow wasn't in the mood for threats. On the other hand, he didn't need the entire alien force attacking him as an enemy while he tried to get the rest of the Emeralds. "Look, I don't take orders, especially from you. But I'm not here to fight you either. I'm collecting the Emeralds to find my own answers. So why don't you just back off!?"

The slit pupil in the center of the starfish stared at him, with no expression that he could read. "You still don't know your place, do you? Black Bull!!" the Eye bellowed, "I summon you!" The ruins nearby heaved as a massive, blobby... thing hauled itself out of them. It had two stubby little wings, but must have had some sort of levitation ability as well - those wings couldn't possibly support the thing's weight. It was bulkier than the Biolizard! It blinked its single red eye at its master, and then at the two dokan. Then it unfolded its mouth and bellowed.

"Behold!" The starfish sounded positively gleeful. "The wrath of Black Arms!"

"Woo-hoo!" Sonic wasn't at all fazed by this turn of events. "Now we're talkin'! Bring it on!" He danced in place, shadow-boxing. Shadow stared at him in spite of the monster in front of them. _Now I __**know **__he's crazy. _

Large as it was, however, this 'Black Bull' proved very easy to bring down. After a few useless strikes against its blubbery body, Shadow discovered that its head was the thing's weak point, and managed to crack whatever it had in place of a skull. As he landed, panting, he noted that Doom's Eye had fled, and turned to look for Sonic

Since there hadn't been room for both to attack the monster's head, Sonic had returned to the alien craft they'd brought down. Diving into the shattered remnants, he pulled out a bright yellow gem, waving it gleefully at the other hedgehog. Shadow tensed instinctively, preparing to fight for it, but Sonic simply walked over and handed it to his black-and-red counterpart.

"There you go, Shadow, number three," he said cheerfully. With a thoughtful look at the fallen monster, he added, "and I think you earned it even if you didn't need to gather them all right now."

Then he flicked back to his standard, cocky attitude. "Just don't expect me to hand them over like that all the time. Good luck with your search, I've got a city to save!" With a wave he ran off, leaving Shadow standing alone in the ruined street.

Shaking his head, the black and red hedgehog turned slowly, trying to determine the best way out of the city. The fourth Chaos Emerald, wherever it was, was nowhere nearby... Finally he thought he felt a twinge from the three he had collected and headed in that direction. He passed another small group of refugees, and helped lever a fallen sign to free the man trapped underneath. A block farther on, he encountered a pair of GUN soldiers, nervously patrolling. One jumped as he approached, and both leveled their guns at him, then the second shook his head and muttered something to his comrade. They straightened slightly, lowering their weapons, and Shadow resumed walking towards them.

Just then the soldiers' radios crackled sharply. "Attention: emergency broadcast to all mobile units; headquarters to all mobile units. All points bulletin, be on the lookout for Shadow, the black hedgehog; wanted in connection with the terrorist attacks. Last seen in the vicinity of downtown Westopolis. Orders are... capture him, dead or alive."

As Shadow froze in shock, both guns swung down to cover him again. Scowling, he decided to bluff it out, and resumed his quick stride towards them. "Outta my way," he said gruffly, "Coming through!"

Gulping, the younger of the soldiers stammered out, "S-STOP! Don't move o-or we'll shoot!"

"Stupid humans," growled Shadow. He'd been praised by the President two days ago, and now they wanted to kill him? _Like they killed Maria! _He jumped between them so fast they probably thought he'd teleported, kicked out - _"Shadow! Don't hurt them!" _- and knocked them both unconscious. _Great. The soldiers want to kill me; the monsters want to kill me, except the one that wants to use me; and the voice in my head doesn't want me to hurt anyone._ He knew the voice of course, it was Maria's. _Well if I have to take orders I'd rather take hers than Black Doom's._ "Hmph!" he snorted to himself.

"Very impressive, Shadow." _That_ deep voice was not in his head. He turned sharply to see the image of Black Doom shining transparently beside him.

"Who are you?" he demanded again, not really expecting a straight answer. He didn't get one.

"You don't remember anything, do you?" The creature sounded faintly amused, which merely irritated the black hedgehog further. He opened his mouth, but the alien continued, "But you will... in time. But now...

"You deliberately disobeyed me, Shadow." The voice was suddenly harder, all amusement gone.

Shadow refused to be cowed. "No one tells me what to do." _Except Maria. _"I have my own reasons for collecting the Chaos Emeralds." He turned his back on the image and started walking.

"You really don't understand the situation here, do you? Perhaps Professor Gerald has done more to your memory than I imagined." The voice sounded more thoughtful now, perhaps a bit scornful.

Shadow stopped, in spite of himself. "The Professor...?" A flurry of images was cascading through his brain suddenly, an elderly man with a mustache like Dr. Eggman's. The man who had created him. Rouge had told him earlier, but suddenly he _knew, _from his own experience, who Professor Gerald Robotnik was. Then he heard the alien's next words.

"Strange that you don't remember your maker," the robed creature mused.

"What'd you say!?" shocked, Shadow turned in spite of himself. Surely this... creature... wasn't implying that _he_ had made Shadow!?

But the question went unanswered. "Silence!!" thundered Black Doom, "The ramifications of your disobedience will be severe!" He slashed a hand diagonally through the air and Shadow felt himself turned inside-out into blackness.


	22. Land of the Lost

21. Land of the Lost

It was hot.

It was very hot.

It was very hot, and the sun was glaring through his closed eyelids, and his head hurt abominably. Shadow groaned and opened his eyes - and closed them immediately due to the glare. "Ugh..." he moaned as he slowly stood up, rasing a hand partly to shield his eyes and partly to keep his head from falling off. "Wha... Where am I?"

He squinted at the surrounding area. Massive stone blocks lay baking beneath the blazing sun, some covered in shriveling greenery. He was standing in a sort of stone-paved plaza, with a low balustrade of matching pale gold stone surrounding it. Before him a similarly stone-paved road led down into a valley strewn with other stone ruins, both in the valley itself and on the surrounding hillsides. Dazedly he thought that the structures resembled a bird, wings spread... His brain seemed to clear as the headache receded, and he gazed around in wonder. Certainly he was a long way from Westopolis, and while it had been late afternoon there when the attack began, it was blazing mid-day here. Wherever here was.

"Whoa," he said to himself, his voice the only sound in the silence, "I guess I underestimated his powers." There was no sound of bird or insect; there wasn't even any wind to rustle the grasses and shrubs growing between the ancient stones. _Wait, what's that? _"Hmm," he shaded his eyes again and looked over the railing and downhill; had he seen movement? Yes. "There's definitely something going on out there. Now it's up to me to find out what they're up to!"

Leaving the plaza he skated rapidly down the road towards the movement in the distance. As he passed through a stone arch, he saw clearly that there were Black Arms moving around a building.

"Hey, it's Shadow!" exclaimed a voice overhead.

Turning, Shadow looked up to see a red shape dropping down from the top of the arch. Recognizing the form and face, he scrabbled in his memory for the name to go with them. "Fists?" he asked, doubtfully. That didn't sound right.

The red dokan frowned, looking questioningly at his spiked, white-gloved fists, then his face cleared and he laughed. "Knuckles is the name," he corrected, raising his fists to a boxing position and showing Shadow the spikes, two on the proximal knuckles of each hand. "Knuckles the Echidna."

"Knuckles," repeated Shadow. "Sorry, I... don't think we've been introduced actually."

The echidna considered a moment, then shook his head. "No, I don't think we have," he agreed. "But you saw 'em too, didn't you? Those black creatures floating around here? Time to clean house and do a little exterminating! I'm not sure what they're after, but if they're diverting this many from the main invasion fleet, it must be pretty important. Want to help me knock some sense into them?"

"Actually," started Shadow, "I'm looking for Chaos Emeralds–"

"Here?" interrupted Knuckles. He was still for a second, with a look of intense concentration on his face, then he cocked his head at Shadow. "There aren't any here except ths ones you're carrying. What do you need them for, anyway?"

"That's my business," answered the hedgehog cooly. "And I'm only here by accident." He headed down the hill again, mildly curious to see what the aliens were up to, but also trying to figure a way out of this place. The Chaos Emeralds could be used for teleportation, but only if he knew where he was going. _If I knew that, I could be there already_. He heard the echidna yell something behind him but increased his pace without really listening.

He had just time to notice the baked pavement buckle in front of him before he was flung high and backwards. Twisting frantically he managed to land on his feet but overbalanced and sat down hard, starting at the biggest worm he had ever dreamed of.

Clearly it had come with the aliens. The scales lacked the iridescence of the other aliens', instead they were a matte, suede-like black, marked with the usual red in a pattern reminiscent of a rattlesnake. (Shadow involuntarily raised a hand and traced a finger down one of the red stripes marking his own quills - was that why the GUN soldiers had turned on him, back in the city?) The multiple jaws gaped wide, like an evil flower, and a cluster of purple strings were launched from the open mouth in his direction, though they fell short. There were three eyes, he noted, each on the tip of a jaw flap; the alternate three flaps had fangs at the tips.

He didn't realize he had company until a pair of spiked, boxing-style gloves closed over his arms and he was pulled to his feet. He looked back to meet Knuckles' violet eyes. "I tried to warn you," said the echidna, as he released him, "there are things living under the ground here. Those stringy things are poisoned or something, I think - I know humans are relatively frail, but the ones that get hit just collapse and die within seconds."

"There are humans here?" Shadow wasn't sure how to take that.

"Yeah." The red-furred echidna paced forward and picked up a loose paving stone that was nearly a big as he was. With no apparent effort, he flung it at the worm, which rapidly withdrew from sight. "A few squads of GUN soldiers turned up about half an hour after the creatures did. You don't know what they are, do you? I've never seen anything like them."

"They call themselves 'Black Arms'," Shadow said. "Or the two-legged ones do, at least. Their leader..." - _may be better not to let on the alleged connection between me and them _- "their leader calls himself Black Doom, but he didn't name the other kinds."

"_Black_ Arms?" Knuckles raised an eyebrow.

"That's what they said," answered the other firmly. With a wry twist to his mouth he added, "And yes, I noticed that all the arms are red."

Knuckles guffawed and with a wide sweep of his arm said, "Well there aren't any Chaos Emeralds here, but there are several of these buildings the 'Black Arms' seem to be very interested in. I think we should find out why. Coming?" He jogged off down the path, sidestepping the damaged pavement.

Shadow followed slowly, walking rather than gliding. He needed to get the Chaos Emeralds, but he did wonder what the aliens were up to. _I don't really think Doom wants the Emeralds for __**my**__ own good; he wants them for some purpose of his own. Maybe I can find some clue as to what he's up to down there._

"Are you awake, Shadow?" the deep voice came from behind him. Suppressing the urge to snap back a smart remark - that was Sonic's M.O. - Shadow merely nodded. Doom's Eye came around to in front of him and continued, "Next, you must find the jewels that are key to reawakening our temple and release their power. Failure is not an option! Now, go!"

"Release their power?" Shadow asked suspiciously. "And then they drain me of energy or something?" he suggested.

"Nonsense," the Eye replied calmly, "we have need of you; we would not sacrifice your energies so soon. Now get on with it!" It floated off towards the closest building, casually avoiding the rock Knuckles flung at it when it passed him.

'_Not sacrifice my energies so soon'? I definitely don't like the sound of that. _Grimly, Shadow skated forward to catch up with Knuckles. The echidna hoisted another rock, but lowered it again when he recognized the hedgehog.

"Heh, sorry Shadow. Thought you might be another one of those aliens. Did you see that octopus-looking thingy? Hadn't seen that kind before."

"We've met," Shadow replied shortly. After a moment he elaborated, "That 'octopus thingy' is the direct subordinate of Black Doom himself; it calls itself 'Doom's Eye'."

"Serves the leader, huh?" panted the echidna as he ran to keep up with the hedgehog. Suddenly he jumped into the air and stretched out. Startled, Shadow winced, expecting the other to do a belly flop onto the stony ground, but to his surprise the echidna stayed airborne. "Maybe I should take a good poke at this Eye next time I see it," Knuckles mused, as it there was nothing at all unusual about his gliding along at shoulder height_. Maybe there's not; I don't know anything about echidnas, _Shadow reminded himself. _And I'm a fine one to talk about 'normal', anyway!_

The two slowed as they approached the building and ducked behind an ancient pillar. The aliens were so intent on the building that they probably didn't need to hide, but Shadow preferred the cautious approach. Knuckles apparently did not. He paused long enough to be sure the aliens were unaware of their presence, then charged in fists first. The first punch doubled a Black Arms warrior over, the second sent it to the ground, where it lay unmoving as the echidna moved on to the next. Shadow ran forward to help.

The two dokan made short work of the enemies, and Knuckles shoved the stone door out of the way as if it were balsa wood. Shadow had just time to notice the bird-shaped pattern carved into its surface before they were stepping into the room beyond. Spiky, glowing red orbs on thin stalks dotted the floor, and large statues stood in a double row from the door to a dais near the middle of the room. On either side of the dais, steps rose upwards; the far end of the floor was raised above the near end. Upon the dais itself was a large green orb framed in two intersecting rings of carved stone. Shadow eyed the statues uneasily. They looked like coiled serpents except each had two arms below the snakelike head, one holding a sword and the other cupping real flames. The eyes were red and pulsed with light. He had the unnerving feeling that they were aware, and watching him.

Knuckles seemed to feel no such unease - until he strode between two of the statues and they swivelled to track him. The echidna came to a dead stop, trying to look simultaneously at objects on opposite side of him. "Erm, Shadow? Are these things aliens too?"

"I'm... not sure." The black hedgehog stepped forward to join the echidna. The statues didn't move. He continued on forward, past Knuckles, and then the statues swivelled as if to keep him in sight. Abruptly the first pair swung back to watch Knuckles, as the second pair turned to face Shadow. "I think they just watch," he said finally. He heard Knuckles snort behind him and continued on to the orb as the echidna followed. Stopping in front of the dais, he looked back to see Knuckles glowering back over his shoulder at the statues.

Focusing his own attention on the orb, Shadow inspected it. The thing perched like a globe in its circular frame, balanced on a pedestal on the small dais. "Knuckles? Look at the carvings here."

Muttering under his breath, the echidna crouched to study the stone. "This temple must be ancient," he commented. "Older than anything I've seen before." Then he frowned, tracing a finger over the carvings. "That's odd. The carvings... they're human heads, and they're pretty old themselves, but..." He looked up at his companion. "Shadow I think these are a lot younger than the building itself. These stones - even the blasted statues - they were ancient, I think, when these were carved. And even these carvings are probably fifteen hundred years or more old." He seemed awed by the thought.

"Are you sure?" Shadow wasn't certain how accurately you could tell age by looking. "I mean, how can you know that the building is older than the carvings?"

"Shadow, I grew up haunting the ancient ruins of my people. I know how to tell the difference between older and newer stonework, and how to estimate age based on weathering. Trust me, these carvings were added long after the original work was completed."

Shadow didn't have much choice; he couldn't recall ever knowing about dating stonework, and it didn't seem something that would have been a high priority to know. Actually, he wasn't sure it was that important now. He looked at the green orb again, with its faintly pulsing inner glow. Without really realizing what he was doing, he reached out to touch the orb itself, within it frame.

The response was immediate, and unexpected. The orb flared into brilliance and it and its twin rings began to spin like a gyroscope. The two dokan jumped back, reflexively looking for signs of attack... but there was nothing but the watching statues and the red glowy things sprouting from the floor.

Knuckles looked over at him. "Umm, Shadow, perhaps next time you'd better not touch it."

The hedgehog nodded. "I think you're right. Although, you touched the carvings and nothing happened." He frowned suddenly, cocking his head as if listening. The Emeralds he carried were responding to the orb, not the same resonance as another Chaos Emerald would achieve, or the, the - an unnamed green gem ghosted through his mind, cut like the Chaos Emeralds, but (he somehow knew) much, much larger. "Chaos energy," he said softly. "Like the rings, or that key."

Knuckles looked hard at the orb himself, then nodded. "You're right. It's not like the Chaos Emeralds, or the Master Emerald, but it _is_ using Chaos energy." He looked around again and walked over to the nearest cluster of the red things. Crouching down next to one he said, you know, these are pulling it in too. I'm not sure what they are, but I think they're alive. Some sort of plant, maybe?" He reached towards it slowly.

"Knuckles! Wait!" shouted Shadow, but it was too late. The orb had exploded in a puff of green mist - and the echidna's brief gasp of pain turned suddenly into frantic gasping for breath. Shadow darted forwards and dragged his companion backwards away from the plants. As the other's breathing steadied, the hedgehog said dryly, "Knuckles, perhaps next time you'd better not touch it."

The violet eyes jerked up to stare into Shadow's scarlet ones a moment, then the echidna punched him firmly, though not _quite_ painfully, in the ribs. "Not funny," he wheezed. "Ow," he added, looking at his hand. Unlike Shadow's gloves - and everyone else's that the black hedgehog had seen, Knuckles' were more like padded mittens, all four fingers covered by a single piece of material, like a boxing glove. A half-dozen red thorns were stabbed through into the echidnas fingertips. He started trying to clumsily pick them out with his other mitt, but Shadow stopped him and did the job himself; since his gloves had individual fingers, his manual dexterity was unhindered, and was probably better than the echidna's to start with.

Knuckles grimaced at the line of red dots across his glove. "Thanks, Shadow. We'd better get going. " He stood up. "Hey, do you hear something?"

Shadow listened a moment. "Sounds like the wind has picked up." He remembered how utterly still it had been when he arrived. Giving the red plants a wide berth, he climbed the steps to the upper level and walked out the rear door of the room. "Good Lord! Knuckles, come look at this!"

The echidna joined him, and swore softly. The path leading out the back of the building ran about twenty feet and dead-ended in a cliff - and a tornado. Shadow watched the dust and stones flying in the tight circle of winds so intently he almost missed the avians that dove out of it to attack them. He quickly dodged and landed a homing attack on one, while Knuckles punched the other into the wall. Unfortunately, once Shadow was in midair, the tornado managed to suck him in.

He found himself spun around three times and deposited on another portion of road. A low flight of steps led up to a courtyard that bore strong resemblance to the one he'd recently left, down to the building on the far side and the Black Arms swarming around it. This one differed, though, in that there were also GUN soldiers present, blasting away at the aliens.

"Oof!" Knuckles suddenly dropped out of the storm to land face down next to Shadow. He stood up rubbing his chest. "Not my favorite way to travel," he complained, then spotted the melee above. "Those GUN soldiers are done for if we don't give them a hand! Come on, Shadow!" The echidna charged towards the steps, and up them, plunging into the fight.

Shadow followed more slowly. The soldiers were crouched behind barricades, with crates of weapons and ammunition stacked behind them. One crate stood out among the rest, though, sprayed with black paint, while the rest were bare wood except for the GUN logos. As Shadow drew nearer, he realized that there were several red stripes painted on the side of the crate; if you looked the right way, they suggested the stripes on the head quills of a particular black hedgehog. Even as he thought that, a blast from a alien's weapon hit the black crate and shattered it. An assortment of guns tumbled out, even as the alien who'd fired the shot went down under the echidna's fists. As the GUN soldiers spread out from their barricade to make sure there were no more enemies, Shadow crouched to look at the weapons. One he actually recognized, and felt a surge of memories as he picked it up.

"Guns, Shadow? Those are human weapons. I prefer my fists." Shadow was startled out of his thoughts as Knuckles joined him. To his surprise and relief, this time the memories stayed, settling into the back of his brain where they belonged instead of vanishing without a trace again.

He looked again at the gun in his hands. "Actually, I think you'll appreciate this one," he answered. "Stay there and hold out your hands." As the puzzled echidna did so, Shadow stepped back and pointed the muzzle of the long silver gun at the ground near his feet. When he pulled the trigger, a puff of blue mist erupted, and surrounded the startled Knuckles. Before the echidna could do more than yelp, Shadow asked, "How are your fingers?"

Knuckles looked at his hand, where the row of blood spots marked where the thorns had hit him. He poked the stains with his other hand. "Hey, they don't hurt! What kind of gun _is_ that?"

"It's a heal cannon. Professor Gerald created it a long time before he created me; it's based on the heal units that he invented to help maintain Maria while he worked on a cure for her." The relief of actually _knowing_ an answer - not merely reeling it out of flash-learning he didn't remember - was incredible. He remembered when the Professor had first shown him the gun, and described it's use and function. "It draws on ambient Chaos energy," he added, "and concentrates it into the healing mist." He looked over to where the soldiers were now giving first aid to their wounded. "Here, I seem to be on GUN's hit list at the moment, so why don't you take it over there and show them how it works. Just point and pull the trigger." The echidna took the gun and jogged over to join the soldiers.

Shadow reached down for a piece of paper that had been in the box with the weapons. On one side was a photograph, of a ruined-looking wall marked with a GUN symbol, beside which flowed a river that glowed unhealthily green. On the back, in unfamiliar handwriting, was scribbled the phrase, 'Prison Island'. _Prison Island. That's where Rouge said she'd gotten three Chaos Emeralds out of a vault. Can I use this picture to get there? _He decided he could, but gave one last glance at the weapons as he stood up again.

This time a different gun caught his eye. Sleekly black, with red accents, it seemed almost designed to match him. He picked it up, tucking the photo under his arm to examine the gun. Like the heal cannon, it seemed to be powered by Chaos energy. However, this weapon clearly contained a finite amount of the power._ I wonder if I could recharge it somehow? Either with rings or my own energies?_ Something told him that this was a very important weapon. He gripped it tightly with one hand as he focused on the photo in the other, drew on the Chaos Emeralds, and reached...


	23. Prison Island

22. Prison Island

When his surroundings reappeared, Shadow found himself dropping several feet to the ground. That was intentional; when teleporting into an unknown or high traffic area, it was a good idea to leave plenty of room, in case someone had dropped a load of boxes or something in your intended landing place. Shadow wasn't absolutely sure what would happen if he tried to rematerialize in a space that was already occupied, but he had no wish to find out. He looked around at his surroundings as his feet hit the ground. "Hmm," he said to himself, "I wonder if there are any Chaos Emeralds here?" There was definitely something that was stirring his sixth sense, though it didn't really feel like an Emerald. Still, it might be shielding one from detection.

As he stepped forward, though, he was hit by a flash of memory so vivid it hurt. _The room was cold and stark; the metal walls lined with wires and computers. A steel plinth was rising into the air, in front of an obese man with an enormous moustache, who was sitting in a two-legged machine_. Shadow cried out involuntarily and clapped a hand to his temple. _The plinth rose higher, revealing a capsule - similar to but of a different style than the one Rouge had freed him from - containing a dark form, partially obscured by decades of dust on the transparent top. Shadow was standing in the opened capsule, the dusty lid hinged open behind him, making his grand declamation to Dr. Eggman. "My name is Shadow. Since you were so kind as to release me, my master... I will grant you one wish." _He remembered it all, the whole scene: sights, sounds, the stale scent of the air, his thoughts and bewilderment as he awoke and the rush of certainty as the Professor's post-hypnotic commands took control of him. But how had he gotten there - here - in the first place? The ARK was a _space_ station!

"That's right." He looked around again, seeking the familiar but seeing only ruins. "I somehow escaped, but was then captured by those humans." He'd escaped the ARK, after Maria's death– But, surely he hadn't come to Prison Island from there? "But... from where? And why?" Why hadn't they just let him be? Why had they wanted to capture him and put him to sleep for fifty years? _Did they know that I was supposed to be a servant of Black Doom, and deliver the Chaos Emeralds to him? Was that their attempt to prevent my doing so?_ He shook his head. That didn't sound right, even to him. He climbed up to balance on top of a broken concrete wall and looked down at the other side.

_Well, that's where the Chaos... flutter... is coming from. _Below him, a couple of rusty, broken pipes jutted out of the wall, alongside two more that ran unbroken into the encroaching jungle. From the broken pipes gushed a steady flow of liquid, an absolutely poisonous yellow-green in color. The scent was sharp and acrid against the background scents of growing and decaying plants, and he could feel a sort of low level flutter or murmur of Chaos energy. _The massive lizard, eyeless and wearing some sort of headdress, whipped its tail at him as he splashed through the amber liquid in the channel around it... The lift slipped silently between entrances to the ARK, running on a rail of green liquid that powered its own containment field as well as the vehicle traveling upon it... _He knew what it was. Or rather, he knew what it was supposed to be. "The Professor's energy fluid. No, not his... Maria? No, Mary. His wife invented it," he finally remembered. "Only it's been contaminated somehow." It wasn't just the color that was poisonous; he could feel the danger of it in its Chaos energy signature. He stepped carefully onto one of the intact pipes and slid down it, across the sullenly glowing stream and through a small patch of jungle to what had clearly been a collection of jail cells.

Actually they were still jail cells, but the opposite wall of the hall and the ceiling had collapsed, leaving rubble strewn around. The concrete floor was nearly obliterated beneath a thick layer of moss and creepers; the jungle was clearly trying to reclaim the land for its own. Here and there were piles of supplies, rotted and moldy, and the metal corpses of Hunter robots and Beetles. Shadow found his gaze kept returning to the barred cells. "I know this place," he murmured, "It feels like I've been here before."

"Shadow," he nearly jumped out of his skin as Doom's Eye scooted out of the jungle. "This place used to be a human military base, and they still maintain a presence here. Destroy all of what remains and deal a heavy blow against their military might!"

Shadow blinked and looked at the wrecked buildings around him again, more closely. They looked exactly as ruined as the first few times he'd looked. _A heavy blow to the humans' military might? If their might relies on this, the aliens have already won. There's nothing left here to lose! _Without replying to the alien, he set off cautiously along the cracked pavement. He thought he recalled multiple levels below ground, and had no wish to fall into a pit. _I'm pretty certain there's no Chaos Emerald here now - oh!_

– _He glanced wordlessly at Sonic, then broke off the fight and fled through the jungle, feeling the power of the Emeralds as he ran, gauging the amount of time until the bombs exploded. The instant he could pull enough power, he teleported, praying he'd land in a clear spot and arriving on a crate in the vault with less than a minute left. Dashing across the room he'd arrived in, seeing only Rouge's surprise as she rose to her feet, and the three gems she cradled, he stretched out a hand and yelled " CHAOS CONTROL!!" _–

He shook his head, trying to focus on the present. _Wouldn't you know it, __**now**__, when I need to concentrate on __**here**__, I finally start recovering my memories of __**then**_ he thought wryly. At least they did still seem to be staying; he could sit down later and examine them. But he remembered now why the island looked the way it did. _We blew it up, Doctor Eggman and I. He made the bombs and I planted them. Perhaps that's why GUN is after me._ He followed the one-time corridor along past cells on one side, with the sickly river gurgling on the other about ten feet below him.

He heard a muttering sound - alien, not fluid, and slowed his pace. Peeking cautiously around a corner, he saw a pair of aliens guarding a chute of some sort where the greenish fluid splashed sharply downhill, covering the corridor. One alien was perched on some sort of small hovering disc, and the other appeared to want the disc itself. Shadow watched the altercation as the two grunted and gesticulated at each other, until the one on the ground suddenly shoved the other off the disc. As the disc drifted out to hover above the goo, and started to drift downhill itself, Shadow darted out between the two startled Black Arms and jumped onto the disc himself. Immediately the disc began to descend, gliding smoothly down the slope above the lethal river_. It's one of the old elevators_, he realized. _Except the top and sides of the shaft are missing, so all that's left is the sloped floor that supported the car._

He passed one floor opposite, the roof of that level also gone, but saw no way to get over without the ramp that used to extend out to meet the elevator car. When he reached the bottom of the shaft he stepped into a tunnel, lit by scattered patches of light where upper floors had given way. More old supplies - and a Beetle that suddenly appeared out of nowhere and fired on him.

The laser singed his fur, but missed his skin as he dodged out of the way; a moment later the machine was scrap. He continued on his way, growling in annoyance at himself. He' been warned there was a human presence here, and even if he hadn't he should have realized that some of the robots might have survived. For all that the jungle had half taken over the base, the damage was really not all that old, merely very thorough. Even as he thought this, he heard a commotion from somewhere off to his left.

Warily, he moved towards it. It certainly wasn't a robot, and it didn't sound like a fight. It turned out to be a young bee trashing an office, flinging files and desk accessories around with the nonchalance of one who was utterly unaware there might be enemies in the area. Shadow ducked as a stapler flew right at his forehead. He stepped into the room and cleared his throat.

The little bee spun around in midair, spotlighted in a shaft of light coming through a hole in the ceiling. He blinked at the dark shape in the shadows, then squealed, "Shadow!" He darted forward. "Hey, Shadow, I gotta ask you something. Vector told me he wants me to find five top secret disks, but... what's a top secret disk?" Shadow blinked as the bee yammered on inanely, not giving the hedgehog a chance to reply.

After a moment he recognized the bee's flight cap and vest - he was one of the Chaotix who'd helped fight Metal Sonic. He didn't remember his name though. And he had no idea about the disks, although 'Top Secret' was clear enough. Brushing past the babbling insect, Shadow climbed on the desk and grabbed a vine that had worked its way through the hole in the ceiling. After a sharp tug, he climbed it up through two floors to a level that was completely open to the sky. And there was Doom's Eye, with a swarm of aliens. "Shadow, you have not completed your assignment yet. Get on with it!" ordered the Eye. Shadow danced sideways as two of the aliens fired at him, narrowly missing some of the red plants, and stepping squarely on something that squished and tried to escape, causing him to sit down hard.

He blinked at the thing he'd slipped on; it looked like a rubbery barnacle shell, with an eye on the top. It was the same red as the thorny plants, and clearly an alien.

"Do not attack our soldiers!" thundered the Eye. Soldiers? Shadow looked back at the blob. And scrambled up and away as the bipedal Black Arms shot at him again. And then dodged back as one of the massive worms erupted out of the ground.

"They attacked me first!" he called indignantly, and proceeded to home-attack the lot of them into submission. As he stood alone amid the red fruits, he noted that the Eye had fled during the brief battle, and then heard the bee's voice.

Hey, Shadow, where'd you go?" Charmy - _that's his name _- popped up through the hole in the floor. "Oh, watch out; those thorny red things are _really _painful!" He looked at the river that was again blocking Shadow's progress. "That yellow water is poison," he added. And then, with a squeal of glee, "I did it! I found a secret disk!" He dove into the moss and pulled out a shimmering, silver computer data disk.

"Good," said Shadow as pleasantly as he could manage. "I hope you find the rest of them." He hopped onto a hover disc that one of the aliens had left near and urged it down the river. The next challenge was a truly enormous alien plant - or perhaps it was a native plant that had been altered, since it didn't look as alien as the ones with red fruit. However, it moved and spat fire, forcing Shadow to squeeze rapidly under a broken door or get roasted. As he straightened up he found himself facing a group of Beetles and Hunter robots, which clearly considered him just as much an intruder as the plant had. He hissed in irritation as he leapt to attack again_. Isn't __**anybody**__ on my side anymore?_ Although, he admitted when he'd gotten clear of the group, that was hardly fair. Sonic had helped him out, afer all, and Rouge... Well, he didn't know what to think about Rouge._ Her mission at one point was to find out all about what I could do and was doing. It may still be, and all her help merely an excuse to study me. _He didn't like that idea, but he didn't have time to think about the situation; the sun was setting and he still needed four more– _Wait! _

"That's a Chaos Emerald!" he exclaimed. The source was distant, but unmistakable. He ran, jumped and clambered to the nearest tree and up it. A very familiar plane was just visible, heading across the water towards the mainland. _Tails. That's Tails' plane, the Tornado. _He remembered chasing it across the Pumpkin Hills, and losing it as it reached the desert. He could just make out the mainland through the gathering dusk. The plane was making towards and area where a number of searchlights seemed to be stabbing up out of the darkness. Well, that certainly gave him a good target. He raised a hand and cupped the green Chaos Emerald in it, keeping his gaze fixed on the distant lights. "Chaos Control!"


	24. The NotSoFun Park

**A.N. ** A note about _Shadow the Hedgehog_: It is clear both from the Final Story, and within the regular levels that Shadow went to a lot more than the six levels allotted to a game. (E.g. Neutral level 5 is Iron Jungle. Pure and Impure Hero levels 5 both take place on the ARK but Shadow is picked up FROM Iron Jungle in their respective preludes; but as they are all level 5 you cannot play IJ and then be taken from there to the ARK for another level 5.) Anyway, my theory is that a) all the key events happened whether Shadow was there and participated or not, and b) Shadow did go to most of the places but not necessarily in the game order. Also, obviously, he could only get a Chaos Emerald of a given color at ONE of the areas that awarded it in-game. Whether the theory is correct or not (I really wish they'd given the real sequence of events either in the closing credits or as a bonus 'title' in the Library when you completed it) this is MY story, and I'm sticking to it.

23. The Not-So-Fun Park

Shadow found himself dropping to land on a strange pavement, patterned in yellow and orange. Around him were walls striped with the same colors, and lit by multiple spotlights from above. Strips of rippling light bordered the edges of the walkway and the top of the arch in front of him, framing the neon words emblazoned thereon. "Welcome to Circus Park!" he read. With a shrug he returned his attention to locating Tails' plane. The glare from the lights around him made it hard to see anything in the darkening sky, but he did pick up the feel of the Emerald. Looking towards that feel, he finally made out the plane - just in time for it to do a nosedive and vanish behind the buildings; it looked as if it were going to crash on the far side of this 'Circus Park', just beyond the farthest searchlights. As Shadow started to move in that direction, a hidden Egg pawn popped up through a trap door in the floor at his feet. Automatically, Shadow slapped at it and the thing – popped! A flurry of paper Eggman symbols (domed head and overgrown moustache) fluttered to the ground around the startled hedgehog. From ahead, he could hear the tramp of real Egg pawn feet. Grimly unamused, Shadow set out to cross the amusement park.

Sure enough, as he strode up a grand flight of steps and passed under a second arch topped by a clown face with an Eggman moustache, he came face to face with a squad of Egg pawns. He affected to ignore them, but they opened fire, forcing him to smash them in rapid sequence. Thankfully, this time there was no confetti. As he passed between rows of poles topped by Eggman heads he picked up speed, gliding with long smooth strides down the empty midway. Booths, still primarily in orange and yellow stripes, lined the path, a few stuffed Eggmen or Eggpawns dangling from the side posts of some of them. There were neither barkers nor attendants present for the games though, so he continued towards the first of several towers that he could see. It had strange, twisted turrets near the top, shaped like a jester's cap.

At the gate, he was met with a cheery "Oh, Shadow! There you are!" and turned to see a small hovering gadget with Eggman's face beaming cheerfully out of its video screen. "Those GUN geeks are trying to demolish my lovely park. Do me a favor, and get rid of the soldiers for me, would you?" The oily obsequiousness of the human's voice made the hedgehog's skin crawl. He ducked around the hovering machine and entered the tower - to be confronted by what appeared to be a huge balloon. A few barrels marked with the Eggman logo stood around the walls, but the only doorway was the one he had just come through. As he advanced to take a closer look at the balloon, two more of the faux Egg pawns popped up. He froze a moment, watching them, but they made no further moves. He walked up to one and punched it, and found himself again in a swirl of Eggman-shaped confetti. He chose to ignore the second decoy, instead looking upwards. There was no roof; he could see right up the tower to the night sky. He looked at the balloon again and tentatively poked it with a finger, prodding it harder when nothing happened. It was very springy. _Hmm, I wonder... _He backed up a couple of steps and did a homing attack on the balloon. It absorbed the force, then snapped it back at him, tossing him up and out of the tower. _Ha_, he thought triumphantly, _it's a trampoline!_

The top of the tower had just enough rim to stand on, and a fat, taut rope stretched forward and down from a stout peg. Looking for an alternate way down, Shadow saw only an assortment of floating balloon animals and clowns, most bearing spotlights. Seeing no alternative - except to go back the way he'd come, and forget about the Chaos Emerald - he stepped onto the tightrope and slid down the length of it.

He met GUN forces at the bottom and they automatically opened fire. Fortunately, the squad was composed entirely of robots, and he quickly smashed the lot. He wasn't entirely certain what he'd do if he ran into a human squad that he couldn't avoid. He didn't have any particular lust to kill humans, and he'd promised Maria to help the people of the planet - but that didn't extend to letting them shoot him without defending himself. Unfortunately, humans were fragile enough any attack he made might well kill them, which would give the other soldiers that much more incentive to get _him_. He was still turning options over in his mind when he came to a circular shooting gallery, and accidently triggered the release of dozens of target balloons. Whipping out the red and black gun he'd picked up in the ancient ruins, he quickly blasted ten or twelve. It was good for relieving tension, at least. When there were no more targets, he eyed the weapon in appreciation; it fit in his hand as if it had been made for him, had little to no recoil, immediate response, and the sights were dead-on. A small pile of rings trickled into a bowl at the edge of the gallery; his reward for good targeting skills. He scooped up a few of the rings and slipped them over the barrel of the gun... and it absorbed them. Shadow had never seen an unliving thing that could use the rings' energy (although many robots and vehicles could utilized the Chaos Drives' energy), but this gun did just that. Further, he still had the feeling that he could feed it with Chaos energy if he could figure out how. _Which doesn't make a lot of sense, but... I've got a few memories back, but it could be in the ones that are still missing. Although that doesn't 'feel' right._ Shaking his head he continued on and came to a roller coaster. The design was such that the rider hung below the 'cars', which themselves hung under the track. The track disappeared into a huge green dome at the end of the path he'd been following; surrounding the dome were an assortment of carnival rides with an Eggman touch. Shadow noticed one ride that consisted of plane-bots, mounted on beams that guided them up and down as the flew in as circle. He smirked, wondering if those were simple shells, or actual robots that had failed their master in some fashion. But, whichever they were, they clearly wouldn't help him advance. He looked at the coaster again. No sign of an on/off switch. After a moment he stepped up on the platform and took hold of the bar, jumping slightly to get into the seat, which was (of course) set at human height over the loading platform. As soon as his weight was on the car, it started moving, and suddenly the rider's legs would be free-hanging regardless of height. The coaster glided into the dome, then slowly but steadily climbed towards the ceiling with an odd clanking noise. Shadow noted that the jets that powered the car shot out a spray of star-shaped confetti with each clank and then the car slowed to a pause at the top of the rail. Shadow gulped, absurdly nervous - or maybe not so absurd, given that he was sitting in a roller coaster built by Dr. Eggman - and had just time to spot the gate on the other side of the dome before the coaster suddenly plunged forward and down.

Shadow clung to the bar in his hands for dear life, and 'Eep'ed in spite of himself. He hunched a bit in the seat and tried to flatten his ears back as the car pinwheeled dizzyingly around its track, and then the track itself did a pair of loop de loops. He made the mistake of looking down and seeing first stars in blackness, then a blur of moving lights pass beneath his feet. Then the track and coaster straightened out, shot out of the dome, and plunged for the earth together. Collision seemed inevitable and he had a vague notion to try to jump off. Fortunately, Shadow couldn't quite convince his hands to let go, for at the last possible moment the plummet turned into a climb and he was hauled up and away from the midway again. He caught a glimpse of a castle on the edge of the theme park, which vanished from sight as the coaster twisted again. The track spun around in a couple of quick spiral loops that sent the car out sideways, then shot off straight for a stone tower. The hedgehog found himself in one window and out the opposite before he could blink, then the track looped back on itself, climbing straight up and over and dropping straight down through the roofless tower. At the base of the tower it braked suddenly, throwing Shadow against the bar, and then the seat fell out from under him. As the shocked hedgehog thumped into a pile of confetti stars, the car swept out a hole in the lower wall of the tower and headed back the way it had come.

Slowly Shadow stood up, brushing bits of paper from his fur. He stretched and flexed his fingers, which were actually cramped from clinging so tightly to the bar. "I am NOT going back that way," he announced to the empty room calmly, as if his heart weren't racing at top speed. "Absolutely not!" There was an exit on the ground level of the tower and he walked out, into a courtyard in front of a circus tent. A squad of GUN soldiers was crouched, facing off with a number of Egg pawns. Shadow opted for the stealthy approach and crept along behind a bunch of GUN supply crates - including another of the intriguing black and red boxes - and then dashed from the farthest to an Eggman-branded barrel. Then he worked his way behind several other barrels until he was behind the robots, and dashed at top speed for the tent. He thought he heard gunfire behind him, but didn't know if it was aimed at him or it the two sides were shooting at each other. He darted into the tent and ducked under a canvas flap by the door. Heaving a huge sigh of relief, he looked up into the gaping jaws of a tiger.

Shadow stared in shock as the massive feline finished its yawn, the jaws coming together with a faint click of teeth. It looked solemnly at the unmoving black and red hedgehog, then paced slowly to the far side of its cage and proceeded to lap noisily out of its water dish. As Shadow recovered from his alarm, he realized that there were a variety of animals in cages along the side wall of the tent, hidden from the spectator stands by curtains. He stepped back into the main entrance way and peeked through the curtain on the other side, to match gazes with a very bored looking elephant. It regarded the hedgehog, who barely came up to its knee, incuriously and idly stuffed some hay into its mouth. As it shifted slightly to reach it Shadow heard an odd clinking sound. He was horrified to see the creature was chained by all four legs to stakes sunk into the ground.

He backed out into the entrance way a third time, and this time walked forward from the door flap. Moving between the bleachers he came out into the main ring, which currently featured nothing but a tightrope strung between two of the tent poles. A second rope hung down through a hole in the canvas ceiling above one platform; the other platform had the only ladder to the ground.

"Ah, Shadow!" Eggman's little hovering TV was back. "Behold! This tent is the pride and joy of my circus! I've gathered animals all over the world to showcase at my marvelous big top!" he boasted. The hedgehog strode determinedly towards the ladder. "Wait, where are you going? There are no soldiers past this point!"

Shadow ignored the human, cooly climbing up the ladder to the small platform that supported one end of the rope. As he stepped onto the platform, a steel ring that encircled the rope near the middle suddenly burst into flame. "Really Doctor," he said, glancing at the machine which was still hovering level with his shoulder, "the Ultimate Life-form is hardly afraid of fire." He thought he heard a faint growling noise from the unit as he trotted sure-footedly along the rope. Only the top half of the ring was burning, and it was sized for a human to duck through, so he didn't even have to duck. At the far platform he caught the vertical rope and climbed it to the top of the tent. Another tightrope passed from the peak of the big top through two more burning rings to a final platform. There was no ladder, but a pair of guy wires stabilized the pole, and Shadow merely slid down one of these. And now he was in another courtyard, facing the main gates of the castle he'd spotted on the coaster.

Which turned out to be locked. Annoyed at all the foolishness, and sensing the Emerald more strongly than ever, Shadow curled into a ball and spin dashed into the door and through it, leaving a neat round hole. Standing up again and shaking splinters out of his quills, he heard his name called, _**again**_.

It was a different voice this time, female, and he turned to see the pink hedgehog Amy hurrying out of a corridor towards him. "Ah, Shadow, I'm so glad you're here! Cream went into this weird-looking castle and she hasn't come back out! Will you go in there to look for her?"

Shadow suppressed a sigh. "I'm looking for a Chaos Emerald," he answered. "Tails had it in his plane, and it looked like he crashed in this area."

"Tails crashed!" she gasped. "Oh, that's awful! I heard a noise a little while back, but it never occurred to me it might be Tails. Do you think he's alright?"

"I don't know," answered Shadow patiently. "Do you know where the sound came from?"

"Oh, I'm not sure," fretted the pink-quilled girl, twisting this way and that. "I keep getting turned around in this place. But I really must find Cream; I told her the amusement park wasn't open, but she insisted that Cheese had come this way."

Shadow suppressed another sigh. "Well, I'll come with you for now, but if I find the Chaos Emerald I'll have to go get it."

"Oh, thank you, Shadow," cried Amy, her face lighting up. "I already looked that way, so let's try this corridor." She dashed off in the direction she'd pointed before he could answer. Shaking his head Shadow followed. The castle was very dull compared to the park out front, and even compared to the one he'd traveled through with Rouge and Omega. The walls and floors were bare stone, lit by wrought iron candelabra or strange spiked lamps. Occasionally there would be a bench or a crate, or a patrol of robots. Amy whipped some sort of immense mallet out of thin air and smashed attacking robots right along with Shadow, which surprised him enormously the first time she did it. If the robots _didn't _attack them, she insisted that he leave them alone. They also encountered some strange, fake versions of the pumpkin-headed ghosts Shadow had seen in the somersaulting castle. These, though, had genuine pumpkins for heads, dangled from strings and cackled only recorded laughter. Then they ran into a pair of very lost Black Arms, swinging massive swords. As Shadow went after them, one wild sword stroke cracked a nearby wall, and Shadow was certain he heard a yelp from the far side. As soon as the aliens were down, he moved to examine the wall. It wasn't so much cracked as broken, and the mortar was still damp. Picking up one of the swords, he whacked the wall a few more times and it collapsed, revealing a small stone cell with Cream huddled in the back.

"Oh, Shadow, thank you!" squeaked the little rabbit; she was only about six and tiny compared to the dark hedgehog. "But... Cheese wandered off into the castle... Shadow, you have to find him, please!"

Shadow groaned internally. First Amy insisting he find Cream, now Cream wanted him to go find her pet chao... what was he, a missing persons department? He backed out of the little alcove and frowned at the wall next to it, which had a large, lighted spider sculpture hanging on it. Just then he heard footsteps hurrying down the corridor in front of them, and dropped to a defensive position. Amy planted herself next to him, between Cream and the door, with her hammer at the ready.

A young fox ran right past the doorway, with twin tails twirling rapidly behind him. Shadow heard him gasp, and he reappeared, peeking around the edge of the door. "Amy! Cream!" he cried in delight. "Shadow? What are you all doing here?"

Cream pushed past Amy and ran to hug Tails, then burst into tears as she clung to him and babbled out her story between sobs. The orange-furred fox shifted uncomfortably, but patted her reassuringly on the back. He evidently made out more of her story than Shadow could from where he stood, because finally Tails disengaged and shushed the young rabbit. "Listen, Cream, you come with me on back out of here, and Shadow and Amy can go find Cheese." He caught Shadow's grimace and added, "Then Amy can bring him right on out and Shadow can finish what he needs to do." Raising his head to look Shadow in the eye, the fox said, "There's a courtyard about three more corridors that way," he jerked his head back the way he'd come, "and down a flight of stairs. That's where the plane kinda crashed, and it's got a Chaos Emerald in it."

"Why–" started the hedgehog, but Tails anticipated the question.

"I didn't have time to get the Chaos Emerald out of the plane before a bunch of robots and alien things showed up. So I thought I'd better go get help."

What help he thought he'd find in a castle belonging to Doctor Eggman, Shadow wasn't sure, but he nodded at the cub. "You take Cream out then, and," he couldn't quite suppress a sigh, "Amy and I will find Cheese. And then I'll make sure the Doctor doesn't keep the Chaos Emerald."

Tails grinned at him. "Thanks Shadow, and good luck. See you soon, Amy. Come on Cream, let's get out of here." He bustled off with the little rabbit girl in tow.

Shadow sighed again and turned to Amy. "Any idea where a chao would go?"

She didn't quite giggle at him, but her eyes were dancing. "Poor Shadow, we're all imposing on you tonight. Well, Tails would have said if he'd seen Cheese, so why don't we try the stairs?" She pointed at a set of stairs leading up not far from the doorway. At his shrug she shouldered her hammer and led the way.

Shadow followed her up the steps to a hallway that opened onto a balcony at the end. As he noticed a red slime trail on the balcony, like the ones he had seen in Westopolis, Amy looked the other way up the hall. "Ewww!" she shrieked suddenly, "What ARE those things? They're disgusting! Go, go, get rid of them!"

Shadow leapt to join her and had a brief glimpse of red before her hammer smashed whatever it was - then he saw the rest of the things gliding along the walls and floor and recognized them as the alien barnacles. Amy, despite the utter disgust in her tone, which had suggested she was about to turn and run, was smashing every one within reach of her hammer. Shadow took great care to stay out of her way as he targeted the ones out of her reach on the walls.

The corridor came to a dead end between a pair of unlit torches. Amy grumbled and started to backtrack but Shadow stopped her, remembering the other castle. "Amy, bring me one of those candles we passed." Looking puzzled, she did so. Shadow took the candle and quickly lit the torches. The wall slid open to a chorus of tiny voices. The two hedgehogs stared in shock at the room on the other side of the hidden door.

"Oh no," said Amy finally, "I have no _idea _which one of these is Cheese!" Shadow could certainly understand that. The room was veritably _crawling _with blue baby chao, all identical as far as he could tell. As they stepped into the room the little creatures scurried over to them patting at knees and begging for attention like puppies. Shadow tripped over one inadvertently, and felt ridiculously guilty as it started to cry. He and Amy ended up shuffling carefully across the room to avoid tripping over or stepping on any more. Finally, the pink hedgehog perked up. "That sounded like Cheese!" she announced, carefully detaching the chao clinging to her red skirt. She led Shadow over to a blank wall, which began to move when they stopped next to it. By this point, Shadow could certainly hear chao noises beyond, though he could never have said they were from any chao in particular. However, when the wall had withdrawn, the chao on the other side scampered to Amy with an air of familiarity, and uniquely among the swarm of little creatures, it was wearing a bow tie.

Shortly after, Shadow was standing back on the balcony with the red slime trail, and Amy was hurrying down the stairs with Cheese to rejoin Tails and Cream. Comparing the glowing trail with the directions the fox had given him, Shadow decided that the wall the slime trail passed over before dropping out of sight must be the wall to the courtyard; a faint trail of smoke seemed to be wafting up behind the wall, giving credence to that view. So the black hedgehog hopped up on the slime trail and let it pull him along. He dropped off into a courtyard that was, in fact, bare of plane, although a few scattered bits of metal suggested that it might have been there earlier. It was not bare, however, of Chaos Emerald. Doctor Eggman was sitting in the head of one of his giant, humanoid machines, turning the brilliant white gem this way and that. Suddenly the bald head swung around, and the massive machine leaped into the air, turning so that it crashed down on its feet facing Shadow.

"What are YOU doing here, Shadow?" demanded the obese human. His dark goggles hid his eyes and the ridiculous moustache hid most of his face, but he was clearly outraged.

"Doctor!" called up the black and red dokan. "I don't want to fight you, but I _need _that Chaos Emerald! They hold the secret to my past!"

"Heh, still trying to find out who you are, Shadow?" chortled the fat human. "There _is_ no secret, Shadow; you _have_ no past!"

"What!?" Shadow felt like he'd just been smashed to Earth again. The words made no sense, but they still spoke to his deepest fear–

"–Enough of this nonsense!" The doctor cut him short. "The Chaos Emeralds belong to me - all of them! No one gets in my way; those who do will be destroyed. So stand clear or I WILL crush you! Just as I will those black creatures!" The machine leaped forward as he spoke, swinging one arm forward. The spiky ball it had in place of a hand crashed down where Shadow had been standing, but of course, he was no longer there. The Ultimate Life-form was not to be caught so easily. He vaulted over the mace-hand and targeted an ill-protected cluster of parts on the vehicle's chest, just under the rim of the Doctor's cockpit. A couple of clever homing attacks and a few bounces off the arms that tried to knock him away brought the giant mecha crashing to its knees... and the Chaos Emerald was jolted out of the Doctor's grasp and tumbled across the courtyard. Shadow snatched it up and fled, taking the nearest door and hoping he could find his way back out of the castle.


	25. Bat on the Wall

24. Bat on the Wall

Rouge the Bat backed quickly away from the wall of the President's office, one hand giving her microphone's cable a sharp jerk. The tiny device, designed for listening through walls, retracted into her glove and the bat froze, clinging to the ceiling with both hands as the guard paced though the hall again. As always, he completely failed to check the ceiling, scanning only the walls and floor of the corridor for signs of possible intruders as he passed beneath her. Once he was past the office door and away, she scuttled backwards to a clump of tropical potted plants and dropped down behind them. Crouching behind the palms and crotons, she saw the GUN Commander stride out of the President's office radiating outrage. His mismatched eyes swept the hallway, left to right and floor to ceiling, then he all but stamped down the hall after the guard.

Breathing a silent sigh of relief, Rouge emerged from her hiding place and walked briskly in the other direction. Concealed behind the plants was a rather risque magazine that would serve as her excuse if anyone ever caught her back there. Being caught on the ceiling would be far harder to explain - especially if caught while listening in on the President's conferences - but with the notable exception of the GUN Commander humans never looked up.

The white bat pushed open a door and stepped into one of the several GUN offices in the President's Mansion. The uniformed young woman behind the front desk looked up, and grinned when she recognized her visitor.

Rouge grinned back. She didn't find humans as a whole to be particularly interesting, but this one she liked very much indeed. "Hey Ambergris," she teased, "anything new going on?"

The other gave her a mock scowl. "That's Amber _Grison_, as you very well know. I cringe to think what you'll make of my married name. But no, nothing new at the moment, if you're talking about the black sheep. The black aliens, on the other hand..." As her voice trailed off, she looked grimly at her friend.

"Rouge, if you can get clear, I suggest you go. Now. The enemy ships are dropping small groups of aliens all up and down the roads leading to Central City, and they're clearing out any resistance as they come this way."

Rouge was tempted; there was little profit in being caught in a city under siege, and much danger. She was unlikely to gain any useful knowledge; and here in the capital city the police and army patrols would be particularly on the lookout for looters, so no profit in a little gem hunt either. Still... "If they're patrolling all the roads in and out, and flying that many ships in the area, I probably won't be able to get out myself," she pointed out. "I'm good at sneaking around, and I can fight; perhaps I should stay here and lend my services to protecting the President."

"Lend?" repeated Amber skeptically. She'd known Rouge since the bat had joined the spy corps, and they both knew that Rouge rarely did anything free of charge. Then she shrugged. "Okay then, I just wanted to warn you.

"Did you find anything interesting in that 'magazine' I don't know you're hiding?"

Rouge sighed. "More of the same, I'm afraid. Some people just seem to get fixated on an idea regardless of the evidence."

"Hmm," was the only reply. The two women exchanged a look. Rouge tended to work directly for the President, while Amber was an assistant to GUN's Commander. She was well aware of her superior's prejudice against Shadow, though she had no idea what had caused it. The blonde human shook her head. "Well, I got word from Turtle. He's sent the 'special label' crates out with rest of the supplies."

"Oh, good." Whether Shadow would use the contents of the special crates or not, Rouge didn't know, but she felt better knowing they were at least out there. And unlike ordinary weapons, most were uniquely suited to his peculiar talents and could not be used against him by anyone - except possibly Sonic. The bat rubbed at her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. "Thanks, Amber. Now I think I'd better go find some aspirin before the aliens get here. See you around."

Rouge left the office and headed to her own temporary quarters. She had been at GUN Headquarters when the whole mess with the aliens started. By stretching the President's orders to learn more about Shadow the Hedgehog to the breaking point (especially given that they dated to before the ARK had fallen), she had fast-talked her way in to access the facility's computers. Her security clearance was high enough to access quite a lot of information, and her computer skills were good enough to access much of the rest. So she'd been in the base when the invasion began, and the fact that the first reports came in from Westopolis had been a nasty shock.

She'd been sitting down in the pit, where row after row of computers stretched below the observation balcony in back to the enormous video screens on the front wall. The GUN Commander, as was his wont, was sitting in his chair scanning the working soldiers and technicians below with his mismatched eyes. Suddenly an alarm had gone off, and the main screens had switched from routine status and security monitoring to scenes of an alien attack on several cities. The main focus of the invasion seemed to be Westopolis, according to the data coming in. That wasn't good, Rouge knew. Personally, because that was where Shadow was, but also professionally, since she was privy to the fact that much of Westopolis' usual garrison was halfway across the country on a training mission. The city was hardly likely to be attacked under normal circumstances; its location dictated that any invaders would have to cross a significant portion of the county to get to it, so there had seemed no reason not to send the troops as a unit for training. Of course, usual policy presupposed enemies coming in a lateral fashion rather than straight down from the sky. Rouge tucked herself quietly into a dark corner near the ceiling as the room went berserk, with soldiers and techs frantically giving commands and relaying orders. After an hour that seemed to last forever, a soldier quick-marched into the Commander's booth up on the balcony. Rouge remembered the subsequent conversation quite clearly.

_The soldier had saluted and made his report: "The black aliens have hit six major cities around the world, and every city is reporting significant damage and casualties. Among them, Westopolis has received the heaviest casualties, due to its weakened defense system. Downtown Westopolis has been almost completely destroyed. Unconfirmed sources have also reported seeing a black hedgehog in Westopolis." _

_The commander had looked progressively grim during the recital, but started at the soldier's final comment. His expression shifted swiftly from surprise to fury. "Shadow? Deploy the troops, NOW! And if you find Shadow with the black aliens... then kill them all." _

"_But sir," protested the trooper, "isn't Shadow on our side–" _

_The commander cut him off fiercely. "I gave you an order, soldier! He's evil and he's the enemy!" As the appalled trooper ran out the door again, the commander turned back to the turmoil below, not noticing the bat in the shadows. Clenching his fist, he vowed grimly, "You can't fool __**me**__, Shadow. __**This **__time, you're mine."_

Rouge shivered involuntarily at the memory. She had rarely seen such implacable hatred, and never without being able to find out _why_. There were humans who hated or feared the dokan, for a variety of reasons - there were dokan who felt similarly about humans - but the commander was not one of those. He was as fair and even-handed in the treatment of dokan civilians as human ones, and had several good friends that Rouge knew of in the dokan military. He had never been stationed on Prison Island, or even ARKauai - he'd only been six or seven when the latter was destroyed anyway- nor had any relatives that Rouge could identify. The commander wanted Eggman caught for the explosion that had destroyed the Prison Island base, but there was none of the hatred he showed towards Shadow; the latter amounted to a personal vendetta, but Rouge had not yet managed to get into the man's personnel file to locate the connection. Then there had been his meeting today with the President.

She had actually been in the presidential office first, preparing to give her report on the damage done to the CIA's mainframe. Somehow the notification had been late - the President was only just receiving the report that there had been an attack on the computer mainframe when she was permitted to enter. Her ears were sharp enough that she'd heard the secretary at the other end of the phone from across the room. "– reports that the CIA's mainframe has been compromised. We're investigating the incidents now. It is a strong possibility that this was also committed by the black aliens."

"Tell the Commanding Generals that the United Federation will never surrender to terrorists," answered the president firmly.

"Yes, Mister President," came the faint reply, followed by a click as the call ended. For a moment the President seemed unaware of the dokan in the room, and Rouge did nothing to draw his attention to her as he hung up the phone. Looking at a picture on his desk, he said softly, "This planet was once saved from tyranny and annihilation by you two heroes. Now mankind must protect this peace, at all costs." He turned and strode to the balcony. "We must stand united to defend our world against these invaders!"

Rouge had waited a moment more before clearing her throat to remind him she was there, and giving her report. Essentially, the CIA had no idea how the aliens had gotten access to the computer, but the invaders had somehow introduced a virus that was destroying the main processing centers. She had done what she could to help them isolate it, but it was beyond anyone's skills to stop so far. She'd barely finished before the President was informed that the GUN Commander wished to speak with him, at which point she was quickly dismissed. That was when she'd taken up her listening post on the ceiling. The Commander had been furious that no one had caught Shadow yet. He insisted that Shadow was siding with the aliens and had been all along; that any heroics in the past were merely to lull suspicions; and that the aliens had planted Shadow on the ARK specifically to aid them in their invasion. He had been infuriated when the President maintained that Shadow was a hero who had helped save the planet from the ARK as well as preventing Doctor Eggman's most recent takeover attempt; and even more so when the President refused to issue orders for the black hedgehog's death or capture. That was when he had stormed out of the office.

Rouge pulled a bottle of aspirin out of her carry-all and filled a plastic glass from the tap. She'd barely swallowed the pills when the alarms went off, almost making her choke on the water. She tossed the glass towards the vanity as she ran for the briefing room.

She squeezed into the room with everyone else and found a spot near Amber. The general in charge of the immediate defense of the Mansion stepped onto the stage. "We have just received reports that large bombs have been placed in several areas of the city by the invading aliens. They are threatening to detonate them if we do not surrender immediately. The President has given orders to begin evacuating all non-mandatory persons through the tunnels. As yet there are no indications that the aliens have detected or penetrated these. The following individuals are ordered to report to the President for further orders: ..." Rouge only half listened to the names that were being read off, after all, only one interested her - and there it was "...Rouge the Bat...". She nodded to her friend and squirmed her way out of the crowd, wishing she could just fly over it. But it would not be a good idea to get people in the habit of looking up.

Once out of the room she did take wing, although she stayed at about shoulder height to the humans running up and down the halls. In the current chaos, she was afraid of getting knocked down if she stayed on the floor; being half the height of most humans had disadvantages as well as benefits. Reaching the presidential office, she stepped in, and was almost immediately sent out to the balcony with a camera in her hands. She strapped it on and prepared to do an aerial patrol, noticing two other dokan doing the same. One was an aide to a visiting dignitary, trapped here by the attack; another bat, but with quiet and self-effacing personality at the other end of the spectrum from Rouge's own. The other was a flying squirrel that was actually a librarian. _Ha, I always said he'd do anything to protect his precious archives_, she thought. The other bat joined her as she climbed higher into the air. By mutual consent they left the nearer streets to the librarian, since he could only glide from wall to wall. Briefly Rouge wondered what Knuckles was doing; he glided the same way the squirrel did, albeit without the skinflaps on his limbs. Had the aliens attacked Angel Island? The Master Emerald held some pretty potent powers... The brown bat indicated the area she would cover; Rouge nodded and turned in the opposite direction. Flicking her camera to record, she flew rapidly out over the city. It didn't take long to locate aliens, although she didn't see any civilians alive or dead. GUN patrols were out of course, and she noted their positions automatically and avoided them. There were flying aliens as well as the ground-bound ones and she had no wish to get shot by accident. She located two of the massive bombs, with intense battles going on between GUN and aliens at each location, and a number of smaller ones that could still do plenty of damage. And then she spotted him. _Speak of the devil. _She paused the camera briefly and dropped down beside Knuckles the Echidna.

"Hey Rouge," he grunted as he KO'd one of the red-armed aliens. He then snatched up a chunk of concrete and hurled it unerringly at one of the flying creatures. Scanning the street as he spoke, he continued, "That's all for the moment... What're you doing here?"

"Surveying the damage," she tapped the camera strapped around her neck. "Why are you here? What about Angel Island?"

"Parked it," he said shortly, scanning the sky and surrounding street for more aliens. "Figured a flying island might be a little obvious, so I set it down in the ocean and it'll stay there til this is over."

Rouge stared at him in disbelief. "You left the Master Emerald unattended–"

"Of course not!" He looked shocked that she could even consider such a thing. "It shrinks, you know; I brought it with me. Anyway, while I was flying to the ocean, I spotted the aliens all massed around some old temple so I went back to look after parking the island. And guess what? I ran into Shadow. He gave me some weirdo gun that heals things and disappeared, and then - believe it or not - the whole bunch of buildings just took off into the air like a fleet of Eggman's battleships or something! I got the GUN soldiers to give me a ride back here, and figured I might as well knock down a few more of these Black Arms guys."

"Their arms are red," Rouge corrected automatically. Knuckles was a bit slow on the uptake sometimes, but she hadn't thought he was color-blind.

He waved the comment away. "According to Shadow, _they _call _themselves _the 'Black Arms'. He doesn't know why either. There're some more! See ya!" He ran off in the direction of a new patrol of aliens.

Shaking her head, Rouge returned to the air, switching the camera back on as she sifted through what the echidna had said. _First: we have a name for them now, the 'Black Arms'. Second: they converted an old temple for flight? I wonder where. Not to mention 'how?' and 'why?'. Third: I'd better warn the military about Angel Island being 'parked' so they don't panic about an unknown landmass._

_But he saw Shadow at the temple, and Shadow left, so he was safe at that point. So he did get out of Westopolis safely. _She'd guessed that from the Commander's rage, but hadn't known for certain. _And he gave Knuckles a heal cannon, so he used one of the boxes. _The boxes - the 'special label' crates - were something she had turned up in the GUN stores catalog long before she'd even heard of Shadow the Hedgehog. There were a couple hundred of the things in storage from fifty-odd years ago, marked with an imperative to retain - which meant the military would never throw them out - but also marked never to be used. The brief listing assigned them to G. Robotnik, and the contents had peculiar names like Egg Vacuum and Heal Cannon. She'd managed eventually to get hold of a crate but been disappointed to discover that most of the weapons inside were non-functional; it was only later that she'd learned they mostly required Chaos energy for power, or at least to activate them. Essentially, for someone who could not utilize Chaos energy the guns had permanent safety locks. The heal cannon was an exception to that, and she'd often wondered why the military didn't at least use that one; it seemed to have obvious benefits for a fighting force since it could heal even major injuries with incredible speed. It was those crates that she had conspired with Amber to get added to GUN supply shipments as they went out; the master of the supply depot was an old friend of Amber's father and doted on her as if she were his own child.

Rouge dropped lightly onto the balcony of the presidential office and switched her attention back to the invasion at hand. The President was already there; staring grimly at a night sky discolored by flames and smoke. Rouge took the paper he handed her in exchange for her camera, then jumped back out of sight as a trio of soldiers entered the office. Two took positions near the door while the third, the Commander, advanced rapidly to the President's desk.

"Sir, your transport is ready. We must go now! Sir, please!" The bat perked her ears, she couldn't recall ever hearing the Commander sound desperate before.

The President merely sounded defeated. "Once again... I have failed my duty to protect our nation."

"Sir, it's not over!" encouraged the Commander. "We can continue to fight. The black aliens may have rendered us unable for now, but we will rally, sir. You must keep your nation strong and together."

The President seemed to give himself a mental shake. "Yes, keep the nation united." He at least sounded more determined and less hopeless. "No matter what happens, we'll never surrender to these creatures. This much I learned from them." Rouge, peeking into the room from the balcony, noticed a picture of Sonic and Shadow on the desk. It was clearly from the ceremony the President had held for Shadow, and showed both hedgehogs' trademark expressions: Sonic's cavalier grin and Shadow's scowl.

"Sir, please hurry," urged the Commander.

The President sighed. "Okay." He left the room, preceded by one soldier and followed by another. Rouge ducked back again as the Commander strode forward to glare out the French doors at the burning city.

"The black creatures will feel their own bloody Hell!" he snarled, and left the room. Rouge confirmed that the room was empty, then opened the paper the President had given her. Apparently one large group of aliens had been pushed back into a jungle region; her assignment was to ferret out any hiding places and gather any other useful info, while liaising with the GUN troops to be sure the creatures were all terminated. She grimaced. _Terminated. Military-speak for hunt them down and kill the lot. _On the other hand, the President seemed to be right to label them terrorists - for the most part their goal seemed to be to terrify people by destroying everything they could for no discernable purpose. It was night, and dark in spite of the light from the fires, but she wasn't a bat for nothing. She could fly just fine at night, and locate the ruins by morning, if she could get back to her plane without being intercepted by Black Arms. She took wing and set off towards her jet.


	26. The Phantom ARK

25. The Phantom ARK

Shadow trudged through the woods, heading away from Doctor Eggman's theme park. He'd had no trouble escaping with the Chaos Emerald, but he'd seen no sign of Amy, Tails, or Cream. There was a faint glow to the east, so he supposed the sun was about to come up on the second day of this alien invasion. At the moment though, the light was still much brighter behind him, a combination of the full moon and the lights from the theme park. The densely-leaved trees around him blocked nearly all the light, though. The darkness suited his mood. He kept wondering what the alien leader wanted from him. _He says he created me, but I know - don't I? - that I was created by Professor Gerald Robotnik. And a little bit by the other researchers, maybe but Project: Shadow... _He scrabbled for memories that weren't quite within reach. _Project: Shadow was supposed to be Ultra Top Secret. An attempt to create an immortal, Ultimate Life-form... a cure for NIDS and other diseases... or an ultimate weapon, depending on who you asked. Most of the people on the ARK, and even in the research labs didn't know what I was, really. _He considered that a moment. It felt true, he thought. _Huh, I wonder if even the Professor knew what I was, really. __**I **__certainly don't. But Doctor Eggman says I __**have **__no past, which means... what? At the least, it implies that Black Doom and/or Professor Gerald didn't create me fifty-some years ago. But someone created me at some point..._

_Anyway, I __**am. **__And if it was an Ultra Top Secret... then the Professor would be committing a terrible crime to tell anyone, especially some alien no one knew about. Unless the government knew about Black Doom. _He considered the ramifications of that a moment, then shook his head. _No, that doesn't make sense. But if the Professor really did break the laws and cooperate with this alien, maybe that's why the Professor wouldn't even have told me. If I knew, I could get him in a lot of trouble, either intentionally or by accident if I said the wrong thing. But why would he promise Doom the Chaos Emeralds? He KNEW how terribly powerful they are!_

Again the image came to mind, his fleeing down a corridor with Maria in tow. And a glimmer of an old man with a white moustache like Doctor Eggman's, rubbing his forehead tiredly as he told the hedgehog "Maria is my life." _That may be it. He'd do anything for Maria; he tried to destroy the __**planet **__to avenge her, Rouge said. _That set of memories was still missing, for the most part. In the back of his mind, the girl stumbled and a soldier fired a gun. He felt like rubbing his own forehead, felt lost and tired and very alone.

_What's going on with me? I can't get these images out of my mind... Those black creatures... how do they know me? Who __**was **__I before this? _He stopped short as his sense of Chaos power surged, before a circle of light abruptly flared up on the ground, with himself at its center. "What!?" he gasped. The light grew brighter, and spread then dimmed, leaving him apparently hanging in space, with the Earth at his back and the far-distant stars on all sides.

"Shadow," rumbled a deep voice behind him, "you seemed troubled."

"You!" exclaimed the hedgehog, twisting to face Black Doom. He wasn't really surprised, but he was rather unnerved at the way this being could haul him from place to place._ Or has he? I can still breathe, so I'm not really in space– _

Further analysis was interrupted by the alien. "Look," he commanded, pointing back past Shadow.

Shadow twisted again, feeling his feet pivoting on some invisible, barely tangible surface. He blinked at the asteroid not far away– no, not an asteroid... "That's the..."

"Yes, that's right," Doom seemed pleased about something. "The Space Colony ARK; fifty years ago."

"The ARK?" Shadow opted to pretend he hadn't instantly recognized the place. "Fifty...years ago?" The catch in the second sentence wasn't feigned; he had a sudden premonition what Black Doom was going to show him.

And sure enough, even from as far off as they appeared to be, Shadow could see clearly into one of the passages, a passage whose windows he shouldn't have been able to distinguish at this distance, let alone see through. And there it was– or rather, there _they _were, the red-striped hedgehog and the blonde girl in her favorite blue dress (_"I'll wear this one for luck, and maybe they'll fix the problem and we won't have to leave!"_) fleeing hand in hand down the hall in advance of the soldiers. "That's... me!" Again, he tried to sound surprised. As the soldiers leveled their weapons, he gasped in spite of himself_. That's when she got shot the first time! I remember now, they shot her and we ran on to the lab, with her blood running down onto my hand! _ He shivered violently, as chilled as if he really were in space; this was more memory than he wanted.

"That's right," replied Doom remorselessly. "This will remind you what the humans did to you. Never forget that horrifying image." He waved a three-fingered hand and suddenly Shadow was _on_ the ARK, standing in the chill stone and steel corridor. The alien was no longer in sight.

_It's __**not**__ really the ARK, _he told himself,_ the scents are wrong, and even Black Doom can't just toss someone back in time fifty years... _He nearly forgot all of that though as - _she _- appeared. _**Maria!**_ The silent cry seemed to come from the depths of his soul, and he remembered sharply and cruelly that while fifty years and more had passed for the world, it was a scant week in his own timeline since she had been so shamefully gunned down. He stared, feeling his eyes and throat burn, and struggling for breath as his beloved sister hurried towards him.

"Shadow, I can't just leave everyone else behind! Please, you need to rescue the people being held by the GUN soldiers in the laboratory!" _It's not real_, his mind made one last feeble protest and gave up. He'd play the part Black Doom had assigned him, for now at least, to try and find out what the alien was truly after... and he'd enjoy Maria's company, even if only an imitation, while he could.

He nodded and started to move. Through a door and into a bay, and the body of a man in a lab coat lay sprawled on the floor. Nearby Shadow recognized a Heal Unit server, and noted that the researcher had fallen with one arm reached vainly towards the device. Even as Shadow took in the scene, the man moved slightly and the hedgehog realized the he was still alive.

"That's one of the researchers," said Maria, her face a picture of distress. "Shadow, give him a Heal Unit!"

That wasn't right, objected part of his brain as he dutifully hoisted the glowing blue capsule out of the server. Maria was more than capable of treating people with Heal Units; she used them herself on a daily basis! And she certainly wasn't the type to wait for someone else to act first - the two of them would have gotten into a lot less trouble if she had been. He tossed the Unit to the floor in front of the wounded man - wounded but not bleeding - and the researcher vanished in the puff of blue mist.

Shadow stared in shock - he'd never seen a Heal Unit vaporize anyone before! Maria on the other hand was completely unconcerned; in fact, she seemed unaware that anything was wrong. "Oh thank goodness he's alright," she was saying, looking at the now bare spot on the floor with relief. "The Heal Unit's side effects will make him dizzy for a while, but at least he's safe!"

Shadow puzzled over that as they moved out of the bay and into a corridor leading to a GUN lift chamber. If Black Doom was supposed to be using this as a fake memory to induce Shadow to cooperate, why would he leave so egregious a flaw as the 'healed' person disappearing? Surely the aliens didn't vanish when they were healed. He jumped back, flinging an arm out to stop Maria as the door slid open to reveal the lift chamber full of GUN soldiers and Beetles. Those are wrong too, he realized. Those are the modern Beetles, not the ones I saw fifty years ago, and those are current GUN uniforms. There was a third error in the 'memory' as well - both the wounded researchers in the chamber looked identical - not only to each other, but to the first one Shadow had run across. Also, there was another Heal Unit server here, and he was fairly certain that they had been uncommon, and kept only in Gerald's quarters (for Maria's use) and in the sickbay. _They certainly weren't left lying around where someone could step on them!_ Several of the soldiers were shooting rather too close for comfort, so he launched an attack to knock the closest out, ignoring Maria's protests. The two circling Beetles he simply smashed. Then he heaved a Heal Unit at the researcher closest to the server, and while waiting for it to recharge, went to inspect the other. When he turned the man's head to see his face, he got a sudden sick shock of memory. _I left Maria in the waiting room when I heard that odd noise, and looked around the door to see two gun soldiers standing over the doctor they'd just shot. This is him. He. _He snorted to himself. _Everything else going on and my inner school teacher has to correct my grammar._

"Why has GUN suddenly...?"said Maria, wringing her hands, "I... I just can't understand!"

"It's all right Maria," he said reassuringly. "Let's get you on to the escape pod, and then I'll come back and make sure all the researchers are safe."

"But the researchers!" she protested. "I can't just leave–"

"Trust me," said Shadow coaxingly. "The soldiers are partly looking for us" -_ or for me, at least _- "so the researchers will be safer the sooner you leave. And then I won't have to worry about the soldiers catching you, so I can get to the wounded that much faster. And you know the soldiers can't catch me unless I let them."

Maria was clearly unhappy, but she subsided, and Shadow led her quickly down a corridor that was marked by flames along the edges of the floor. _That's not right either - firstly, there's nothing there to burn, just steel and stone; and secondly, the ARK's automatic detectors would seal the corridor off and either foam it or open it to space, putting the fire out. _Hearing voices ahead, he left the girl hidden and looked around a corner. More soldiers, and several of the big, bipedal robots.

"Remember," grated a voice that nearly made him jump out of his quills, "you were attacked by the humans here. You know what you must do... Finish them off!"

Shadow glared at Doom's Eye then walked straight through it to take Maria's hand. She seemed completely unaware of the alien hovering three feet in front of her, and Shadow boldly walked through the projection again as he led her into the corridor. "We have to run now, as fast as you can." He darted between the startled soldiers as fast as the girl could run; fortunately, this group had knives in their hands and their guns slung over their backs._ Careless, in a facility not yet totally cleared. _Before they got to the bend in the passage, though, someone had unlimbered his rifle, but the rounds he fired after them missed. Then they were around the turn and out of sight. Shadow kept going until Maria couldn't run any more.

"Why," she panted, when they paused to catch her breath, "are the soldiers _doing _this to us?"

"I don't–" he started, then changed his mind. This wasn't real, so telling the truth wasn't going to change anything that had happened. So, he told her the truth. "Because of the Biolizard, Maria. Someone got scared when she broke loose, and the Gizoid did the same. So they've come to take control of your grandfather's experiments. Including me."

"You're not an experiment, Shadow! You're a person!"

He couldn't help but smile at her indignant tone. "I'm a person who happens to be an experiment," he corrected her. "And GUN has no proof that I won't also go berserk and possibly kill someone."

She frowned, but didn't answer, instead starting down the hall again. The black hedgehog fell in beside her. She trudged along with her eyes on the floor, absently stroking back a wisp of blonde hair that kept falling back into her eyes.

Shadow kept his ears alert for sounds of more soldiers, and tried to figure out where they were. The hall seemed terribly generic, with no signs or identifying color marks. They reached the end of the hall and stepped into a larger corridor he knew very well.

Maria apparently recognized it too. With a giggle, she skipped out into it and pirouetted. "You used to always run so quickly along this slope, remember?"

"Yes," he replied quietly, as a veritable flood of memories washed over him. He'd spent a lot of time here, on the Loop. Only, when they got to the bottom of the slope, the rest of the Loop was missing - there was only a door leading back in the direction they'd come from, albeit on a lower level. Where the hall itself should have swung off the opposite way... was a solid wall.

The two stepped through the door and had to fend off another squad of soldiers. And so it went until Shadow finally located the escape pod, in completely the wrong room, that wasn't where it was supposed to be anyway. And as they stepped through the door the room changed, growing suddenly much larger as a round, flying tank sort of vehicle appeared. Shadow snorted, suddenly recognizing the vehicle as 'Heavy Dog' a prototype he'd battled for Professor Gerald as a test of his skills. But that had been _months _before the tragedy! Maria gave a short squeal and clapped her hands over her mouth. Shadow turned to reassure her as the tank moved into attack range, but–

"What the...!?"

A soldier was there, superimposed over the room, several times life-sized, with his gun raised and pointing at Shadow. There was a white flash, and Maria, also several times life-size, was falling to the floor in a series of black-and-white stepped images. "Please, Shadow," her voice gasped in his mind, "help me...!"

He stepped forward, hand raised but there was nothing but the room and Heavy Dog, and Black Doom suddenly loomed over the dokan's shoulder. "Humans, willing to sacrifice their own when overcome by greed. They are a foolish race."

"Those heartless humans!" Although his outrage was partly feigned, Shadow suddenly realized that, although he couldn't in all fairness retaliate against current GUN soldiers for the agency's past crimes, there was nothing to stop him from taking some sort of revenge here - even if the soldiers in this place weren't real. "Get out of my way!" he demanded. Black Doom vanished and Shadow leapt into battle with a will.

The Heavy Dog hover tank spun and darted on its cushion of air, but it had no hope of catching Shadow, who dashed and leaped far more quickly than a mere machine could match. The homing grenades it fired were a bit more annoying; with a cloud of the things surrounding the vehicle, it was tricky to get close enough to hit the tank itself, and since they went off automatically, he got a few singed patches - which stung, even though the fight wasn't real. _Hmm, I wonder if there's something there that I am fighting, even if it's not old Heavy Dog._ The tank's other main attack was a stun charge sent through the metal floor, but that had no hope of hitting the elusive hedgehog. In very little time, each grenade launcher had been hammered shut with a homing attack, and the fuselage pounded into a metal lump. Although Shadow did decide to leave the hatch functional, so the pilot could escape. He chased the human a short way, then knocked him cold.

And suddenly he was standing in brilliant sunlight, with an absolutely _frigid _breeze whipping through his quills. The air was almost thin enough to be in space, but he was standing on bare flagstones. Blinking furiously at the glare and drafts, he realized he was standing on top of one of the ancient buildings in the canyons. He was amazed by the change in temperature– and then he looked down. The ground was missing.

"Surprised, Shadow?" rumbled Black Doom behind him. "Come this way, and see how I cannot fail to take over this pathetic planet."

Shadow looked down again, and realized the ground wasn't actually missing - just a whole lot further down than it should have been. They were at least as high as the Doctor's fish fleet had been, flying a fleet of buildings. He stepped quickly up to stand beside Black Doom, hugging himself for warmth. Just because he wasn't incapacitated by bitter cold the way ordinary dokan were didn't mean he particularly enjoyed it. "I bet no one expected this baby could fly," he said, awed in spite of himself.


	27. High to Low

26. High to Low

"I transported this brilliant flying fortress to this planet over two thousand years ago. It's magnificent! The perfect killing machine," announced Black Doom proudly, "ready to impose terror in unimaginable ways!"

Shadow could readily believe that. Surely few people on Earth would imagine that an ancient temple complex would suddenly take to the air. Even if all it did was drop rocks - or more troops - the threat was not one that would be anticipated. He looked around. There were Black Arms of various varieties swarming around the airborne buildings and roads, and some of the alien's supply 'crates'. He also spotted some sort of large cannon, with a gunner's seat built on. The roads and buildings were being kept in contact by a network of red lasers - for guidance? Or some sort of tractor beam? He didn't know. Far off beyond the flying stonework he caught a flash of red, and the sky beyond that was growing heavy with thunderclouds.

Apparently, Black Doom had spotted the red gleam as well. The roof they were on tilted subtly as the temple changed direction, heading for what Shadow now saw were several distant red objects. "Hmm, do these fools really believe they can stop... ME?" purred Doom, sounding like a tiger being challenged by a rabbit. The outcome was certain; the only question was when the tiger would get bored with the entertainment and strike the final blow.

Shadow frowned into the distance. Whatever they were, the specks must be moving toward the temple as well, for they were visibly growing larger. He squinted... they looked like...

"Isn't that... the Doctor!?" he asked in surprise, as the specks resolved into the scarlet whale fleet. The errant thought crossed his mind that the doctor must have some sort of weather control apparatus - every time they fought his fleet, there was a storm.

"Shadow," commanded Black Doom, "do not fail me." And the alien leader sank through the floor, much to the surprise of the hedgehog.

Shadow stared a moment at the spot where the alien had vanished then turned resolutely towards the rapidly closing fleet. "Right," he said, clenching a fist._ I need to talk to Doctor Eggman and find out what he meant. The last time the Doctor told me I had no past, it was the fake Doctor Eggman that was serving Metal Sonic; why would the real one tell me the same thing? I don't see the Doctor sending the fleet on by itself, so he must be in there somewhere. And with four Chaos Emeralds to hand, moving between these ruins and those ships shouldn't be a problem. So, let's start by getting closer._

He jumped to the courtyard in front of the building he was standing on and dashed across it, trying to ignore the fact that nothing but air was visible through the gaps in the flagstones. Out to the road and along it until it ended, with a Chaos-boosted leap across the gap to the next portion of paving stones. He continued this sort of midair obstacle course until he reached the cannon where he found several of the Doctor's Egg pawns engaged with several of the Black Arms. This time he spotted the shadow in the courtyard_ before _the monstrous worm erupted out of it. Involuntarily he looked down, wondering how it could be underground if the ground had been left so far below them.

As if on cue, Doom's Eye scooted up beside him. "Our annelid brethren can absorb surface materials and sink into the surface below them; our miniature worms detect prey by seeking out their vital signs," it boasted. Having helpfully answered Shadow's unasked question, it continued, "Shadow... The foolish scientist still seeks to resist us. Use our cannons and blow his ships out of he sky!"

Shadow stepped toward the cannon, reasoning that it might be easier to get information from the Doctor if the man had fewer ships and robots to back him up. And at least with Doctor Eggman he didn't need to worry about killing humans; except for the Doctor himself on the flagship, the vessels would be 'manned' entirely by robots. However, the aliens, having scrapped the robots, now turned their guns on the black hedgehog. With a yelp he dodged out of the way and launched his own attack against them.

"Do not attack our soldiers!" thundered Doom's Eye.

"Then tell your soldiers not to attack **me**," Shadow snarled back. "Or maybe I'll refuse to play Black Doom's little game, and then what will you do?" In point of fact, he hadn't been working for Black Doom at all yet, but the alien seemed to be refusing to accept that. Or maybe if you kept telling a Black Arm that something was true often enough, it would end up believing it. Either way, the leader of the aliens seemed oblivious to Shadow's failure to follow his orders, except for that initial punishment that had dropped him in the temple canyon in the first place.

The Eye made no answer and Shadow kicked on his hover shoes and skated rapidly towards the next building. This one proved to be a temple holding one of the glowing orbs, blazing with green light while its stone supporting rings did their gyroscopic spin. Idly Shadow wondered what would happen if he damaged it, but instantly decided against experimenting. _With my luck_, he thought as he leapt up the flight of steps to the higher floor behind the stone globe,_ the building will simply plummet to earth the instant the gem cracks. _A shiver ran up his spine at the thought of that plunge. He snorted at his own reaction. _It's not heights that worry me, just falling from them._ Out into the next courtyard and he tripped over something and landed hard - and painfully - on his hands and knees. _Ouch! _He looked back to see a number of the blobby red aliens blubbing towards him. He stood up fast, dusting his hands together and backed away, looking down at his knees. A new set of red streaks marked fur that was supposed to be solidly black. Fortunately, his gloves, though streaked with dirt, had protected his palms, though his wrists stung from the force of his landing. The red things inched closer. He realized that they were just tall enough when they stretched upwards to hit the toes of his shoes in hover mode. Rubbing just above his scraped knees to try and diminish the pain, he made a mental note: _JUMP over red blobs in the future; do not try to skate over them. _ He looked down as the pain faded and noted that the scrapes were already healing. "Thanks, Professor," he murmured as he turned away from the things to continue his journey, "quick healing is a very useful trait." _I must be real. A robot wouldn't bleed, and certainly couldn't heal itself. _

There actually wasn't much farther to go, the road dead ended with nothing close enough to reach. Shadow looked around, considering where he might teleport to. He drooped suddenly to the ground as a shadow fell over him, and a dark shape swooped down where he'd been a moment earlier. It was bigger than the flying aliens he'd seen earlier, almost as long as he was tall. Noting the creatures long 'ears', he smirked, and when it dive-bombed him a second time, he grabbed one of the appendages and vaulted to the avian's back. There was a brief aerobatic display as it tried to throw him off and he tried to catch the other ear, which he won. With a light tug on the left-hand ear he steered the thing towards a small island of floating rock, which seemed out of place among the buildings and roads.

His mount was shot down by a couple of robots on the rock, but he neatly teleported in behind them and took out each Egg pawn in turn. The only other thing on the islet was an odd two-legged mech, marked with the GUN seal. He circled around it cautiously, but it seemed completely inert. GUN must have left it behind in their earlier attack, he realized. Or else the buildings had flown off before they could recover it. There was another islet of rock above him, and just beyond that was the start of another segment of road. On a whim he climbed into the cockpit at the top of the vehicle. Unbidden came the knowledge, presumably from his flash training, of how to steer it, as well as the understanding that it was specifically designed to aid in crossing rugged terrain by running and jumping.

He glanced up at the rock above him - not directly overhead, but offset by about fifteen feet. With a slight shrug he pulled himself into the jumper and walked it forward. It made an appalling amount of noise, but when he keyed for a jump it sprang a good thirty or forty feet up and hovered. Booster jets pushed it forward until it sensed the rock beneath it and landed on the next islet. A second jump brought Shadow to the next road portion. He walked it forward a few steps and decided that not only was it terribly noisy, it was incredibly slow. So, since there weren't any of the flagships within jumping distance, he abandoned the vehicle and used his hover shoes to start up the sloping road. There was a colonnade at the top, and one of the red whale ships could be seen through the pillars. Behind it the storm had closed rapidly; the seething clouds were nearly as dark as Shadow's coat and flared with lightning.

Shadow didn't think the lightning was close enough to have hit the pillars, but either a shell from the ship did, or the thunder vibrations were strong enough to topple the ancient pillars - because while the paving stones beneath him still rumbled in time to the thunder, the columns were suddenly rolling towards him, breaking into their separate drums. He vaulted two of the heavy stone cylinders and dodged a third and met Doom's Eye at the top of the road, where a lone pillar remained standing among the bases of its fallen fellows.

The Eye seemed oblivious to the whale ship's proximity; it was staring hard into the clouds. "What is that massive electrical discharge?" it rumbled as Shadow came up. "Is that an attack from one of the battleships?"

Shadow gave the alien a puzzled look. "It's lightning." He stifled the obvious question before it escaped, as the answer was also obvious - no, the Black Arms wouldn't have seen lightning while living inside an asteroid. He added, "Storms build up electrical potential between the sky and the ground, and the discharge is called lightning. It's normal."

The Eye wavered back and forth as it hovered. He wasn't certain whether it had even heard him. Abruptly it jetted off across thin air towards another of the stone buildings. Shadow turned towards the whale ship instead, and pulled out the green Chao Emerald. Focusing on the deck he commanded, "Chaos control!" and was there. Something flashed behind the ship as he landed - he couldn't tell if it was a plane-bot or one of the aliens' devices.

He'd calculated his landing spot well; he was only a few feet from the door to the bridge. He pushed his way through, bracing himself to beard (moustache?) Doctor Eggman in his lair– but it was empty. The chair that was obviously intended for the Doctor's use was swivelled away from the screens and computer bank, and facing the emergency escape hatch. Another door in the back of the bridge stood open, but the voice rumbling through it was certainly not the Doctor's.

"Hurry up, Espio! Aren't you done yet? At this rate, the entire _day _will be wasted!" Shadow involuntarily glanced out the viewport, confirming that it was barely noon. He moved towards the door on foot, as silently as he could.

The next voice he recognized, and grimaced. "Yeah! Whole day wasted!" Charmy was here, so the deep voice must be that crocodile, Vector.

"Hey back off!" The chameleon sounded understandably frustrated, "Data retrieval isn't exactly my specialty."

"Let me do it then!" demanded the bee instantly. Shadow reached the door in time to see Vector snag the little insect right before he collided with his frantically typing teammate. For good measure the crocodile clamped a huge hand over the bee's mouth.

"Stop bugging him, Charmy!" The little bee sputtered a stream of half-muffled protests as he squirmed. Just then the chameleon somehow spotted Shadow.

"An assassin?" he asked, slipping a hand into a pocket as he turned quickly to the door. Shadow stood motionless, watching as Espio pulled out one of his throwing stars. The gold eyes watched him back, ready to throw it at the hint of a wrong move.

Vector also turned, regrettably letting go of Charmy as he did so. "Well, well, if it isn't Shadow." He eyed the dark hedgehog thoughtfully. "You know that Eggman fella' pretty well, don't ya? Well, we need to hack into his computer." He hastily forestalled Shadow's question by adding, "and don't ask why! And we don't have any more time to waste."

Noting the chameleon's slight relaxation, Shadow strolled casually into the room. His mind raced, deciding that although he'd like to know why they wanted the Doctor's info, it didn't really matter. He'd like to know a bit as well; although he was really after the man himself. "Hmmm," he answered the crocodile, "well what a coincidence. I'd like to know what the good old Doctor's up to as well." He stepped up to the computer and studied the keyboard a moment. With a faint smirk, he noted that A, E, G, N, and M were nearly or completely effaced, and leaned down to type in a quick 'EGGMAN'. The computer chirped and the directory screens came up. "Where is Doctor Eggman? I was expecting him to be here with his fleet," he asked, as he scanned the file names –_Wait! What's that? _He only half listened as Vector explained that the Doctor had fled after the Chaotix had forced their way in. They'd initially stowed away on a cargo ship... Shadow stopped listening at that point as the Shadandroid file came up, and information began rapidly filling the screens. Espio quietly interrupted Vector by sending Charmy out to stand guard, which meant the crocodile also left. The black hedgehog barely noticed.

There were apparently two types. Most of the 'higher' Shadow Androids had been lost to Omega on the flagship. They were cloned tissue over synthetic skeletons that were not metal and appeared the same as dokan bone radiographically, so an X-ray would not distinguish between the higher androids and the base subject. _'Base subject'. That means me. Unless... _Because of the cloned tissues, they had the ability to both bleed when injured, and the skin could heal itself. The brains were also non-metallic, positronic and as self aware as any of Eggman's robots - but there was a note to the effect that they tended to fight over which was the 'real' Shadow. _They think they're real. But I think I'm real. I bleed, but so can they. So does that make me an android as well? _He scanned through the file desperately, looking for some indication of where the original tissue had come from. 'Chaos energy' caught his eye, but... _"At least some amount of Chaos energy utilization resides within the cells or genes of the living tissues. I have perfected a machine that will utilize this ability, emitting Chaos energy to enable the higher androids to become essentially indestructible and increase their strength. For the sport of it, it may also release more traditional forms of attack, but the very randomness of the strengthening will make my army harder to defeat, since even unenhanced, the Shadow androids will be stronger and more durable than either human or dokan soldiers." _ Shadow swallowed hard. That had been another of his 'proofs' that he was real, that he could use Chaos energy and an android wouldn't be able to.

"Here," said the chameleon quietly. Shadow nearly jumped out of his quills; he'd completely forgotten the other was there. He looked where the purple-scaled dokan was pointing.

"_Tissue samples taken from the source body were difficult to revive, due to the state of the source body at recovery. However..." _Shadow skimmed the next several lines, referring to chemicals and enzymes he didn't recognize. At the end of the section, the samples had been revived enough to be cultured and then cloned onto the android skeletons. He noted that the central seam that allowed access to the internal workings of the androids - again designed to appear real to a basic body scan - could only be opened by Doctor Eggman himself; the androids could not only not open the seams, they were programmed not to notice the feel of it under their fur. He looked back to the start of the section. _"Tissue samples taken from the source body were difficult to revive, due to the state of the source body at recovery." So what does that mean for me? It sounds as if the 'source body' was dead, or nearly. And if it wasn't, why didn't the Doctor just take more samples?_ He looked uneasily at the chameleon. Espio regarded him steadily. Then suddenly, his purple scales shifted to black, marked with red stripes down his arms and legs, his yellow nose horn also turning red, while the heart-shaped mark on his chest turned white. Only his eyes did not change.

"Remember that the Doctor considers himself far more intelligent than most people," said Espio in his quiet voice, flicking back to his usual purple with peach chest. "And that his ego is as large as his dreams. Even what is in his private files, I would not rely on as absolute, unshaded, truth." He glanced at the door to the bridge, through which as sudden succession of bangs and yells could be heard. With a sigh he got up and headed out the door, pausing only to add "We should be just about over Doctor Eggman's current base now. Good luck, Shadow the Hedgehog."

Shadow stood a moment, staring after the chameleon and listening to the mayhem out on the bridge. Then he turned back to the computer and ruthlessly deleted the Shadandroid file, cuing in a command he'd learned long ago from the Professor - the Doctor's own grandfather - to ensure that the file was completely erased and unrecoverable. He considered wiping all of it out, but the Chaotix had been after something, and it would probably cause more trouble for the Doctor if he let them get it. So, he left the computer unlocked and slipped out through the bridge (where the Chaotix Detective Agency was enthusiastically fending off Egg pawns) to the escape hatch. Taking one of the helicopter spinners he jumped off the battleship and guided his frail craft through the rain - he'd forgotten about the storm - down to the trees below. In the distance he could make out a metal spire or two and the glare of electric lights.


	28. A Brief Reunion

27. A Brief Reunion

Rouge scowled upwards a moment as it started to rain. At least she'd worn her waterproof makeup. _And, honestly, it probably doesn't matter. Once we're under those trees the rain may not be able to find us._ She had gotten as close as she could with her jet, then been stuck into this unit of soldiers for transport to the staging center. After half a day of fretting, she and they were being sent on to the ruins in the old-growth forest where the Black Arms had been supposedly cornered. She wondered how many of the eager young soldiers around her were aware that these were only the aliens that had been driven from Westopolis. Most of the comments she'd heard suggested that they thought this was the holdout remnant for the entire invasion. Not that she'd bothered to enlighten them. Better they be in good spirits now and disappointed later than go into battle thinking they had no chance. But she knew that Central City had been evacuated and essentially fallen and that two other cities the Black Arms had attacked were also lost. Further, she'd heard that something described as a 'bunch of flying buildings' had rained destruction on a couple of other areas, leaving behind small groups of aliens. Those actually worried her more - the capture of cities was SOP for an invasion, but the little squads dropped off in the wake of random destruction bespoke diversionary tactics. She wanted to know what the defensive forces were being diverted _from_. Further south, in the dokan-dominant regions, there was little or no sign of the aliens, although the dokan military forces were on high alert.

Actually, even this 'last stand' in the jungle seemed more a diversion than anything else. The aliens certainly had done enough damage to Westopolis to make it unlikely that they'd be so quickly pushed into a retreat as far as the forest. But that was the military's responsibility; hers was to merely be certain all the aliens were killed and then report back to the President. The radio in her ear clicked quietly and then the orders came across. "The Commander has authorized use of all tactical weaponry. Orders are to stop both the black aliens and the dokan known as Shadow the Hedgehog. Seek out and kill all enemies." _Shadow! What's he doing here? _It was the first she'd heard of him since talking to Knuckles in Central City. She silently prayed that she'd locate him before any of the soldiers did. Clearly the Commander was still convinced that Shadow was in league with the Black Arms; she wished she knew why.

There! Finally the signal she'd been watching for. As the young humans around her began their orderly surge into the forest she took wing, charting her own course for the trees. Technically, she was supposed to stay with the squad for her own protection, but that would hinder her missions (official _and _private) and probably not add much to her safety. Actually, sticking to either flight or the trees would likely be safer than staying with a squad of humans - less likely to attract attention. She disappeared quickly into the canopy before anyone noticed her defection.

Once among the trees, she switched to flying squirrel tactics - locate a suitably strong branch, quickly dash-and-glide to it, scan for signs of enemies or discovery, and repeat. Her main problem was that many of the trees here were relatively brittle, and even female dokan were surprisingly heavy for their height and build. Bats were lighter than the ground-bound races, but her muscles retained the extra density even though her bones were largely hollow. The southern jungles tended to have more trees that were either outright huge, or flexible enough to bend without breaking - in fact the flying squirrels did some of their most efficient traveling by using flexible branches to springboard them higher between consecutive glides. In the right terrain, they could easily outpace Rouge. At the moment though, stealth was more important than speed because the Black Arms were indeed hiding in the forest. Rouge located the first couple of aliens only forty feet into the trees. Steel toepicks and a couple of well-aimed kicks put the creatures out of commission with a minimum of fuss. Then it was back up into the branches and scouting through the canopy again.

She had a few problems when she ran into some decidedly abnormal plants. One enormous yellow bloom was spitting fireballs at anything that moved. While trying to get clear of that, she ran into a strange, rubbery red vine that nearly flung her back into the flames; it appeared to function like a slingshot or rubber band. And then there were patches of short, thorny, red things with glowing fruit that broke and released puffs of noxious green vapor when touched. She had barely gotten out of the patch of dangerous vegetation when she heard over her headset that the aliens had gone into some ruins near the heart of the jungle.

Just as she located the ruins, she heard the ominous rumble of engines above, mixed with cannon fire. Her trained ears recognized the sounds of the Doctor's whale ships immediately. _Drat. I knew we should have made sure they were all out of commission. But... what are they shooting at? Surely even Eggman wouldn't just come firing randomly into the jungle. _She clambered quickly upwards until she could see the sky - and got a eyeful of rain. Blinking fiercely, she wiped her face and looked again, more cautiously. The whale fleet was approaching rapidly, and it was fighting... was fighting... _I don't believe it. _It was fighting what looked like a bunch of ancient stone ruins, if ancient stone ruins flew through the air. Suddenly, a tiny shape dropped slowly from one of the whale ships, dimly silhouetted against the dark clouds. As it drifted closer on the wind, she recognized the shape of a dokan, hanging from one of Eggman's one-person helicopters. A flash of lightning illuminated the dark shape, and Rouge grinned. Dropping down to a lower level of the canopy, she began working her way towards the other's apparent landing zone, and dropped out of the trees to land behind him.

"Hey Shadow! GUN has driven the black aliens into the jungle," she said cheerfully. "Do you want to join me in helping GUN round up the last of them?"

The black hedgehog whipped around, crouching defensively. The scarlet eyes blinked at her. "Rouge?"

She cocked her head at him. "You were expecting Tarzan's Jane, perhaps? ...Never mind," she added his expression shifted to confusion. "You know they're after you, don't you? GUN, I mean."

He grimaced. "GUN, and the Black Arms, and the Doctor." He hesitated a moment, and said, almost wistfully, "Are you after me too, Rouge?"

Rouge thought of a half-dozen replies she'd like to make, given a straight line like that - but restrained herself and said, simply, "I'm on your side, Shadow. No matter what anyone else is doing."

A little of the tension left the black shoulders, but he looked unhappily away from her and said, "I was looking for Doctor Eggman's base. I need to talk to him." He studied the vine-covered ruins that were just visible through the trees. "That's not what's left of the base, is it?"

"That? No. That's just some old ruin. Doc Eggman's base is more to the south of here." She waved vaguely in that direction. "Why do you want to go there?"

The dark hedgehog didn't answer; he just stood tugging lightly on one red-striped quill as he stared off into the jungle. "I need to know," he finally said, but softly, as if talking to himself.

Rouge scowled. Was he back on _that_ again? "You're _not _a robot, Shadow–" she started.

The scarlet eyes swung back to stare hard into her own. "Android, not robot. Doctor Eggman– he cloned Project: Shadow, the Ultimate Life-form, and grew tissue that he shaped onto androids; androids with skeletons that appear real, androids that can bleed and heal._ Androids that can utilize Chaos energy!_" He blinked, his gaze as intense as his voice. "How can you be sure I'm real, Rouge? How can **I** be sure I'm real?"

Rouge scrambled momentarily for an answer, then reached forward and pinched his arm, hard. "You feel real enough to me," she said.

Shadow growled, knocking her hand away, and stalked off. "That's not funny."

"Wait! Shadow," she scrambled after him. "Look, I'm sorry. Although, I really don't understand. You're you, and you're free, so does it really matter what you are under the fur?" Having never doubted herself (except that one time in the vault) she truly failed to see the problem. If he was a rob– android, well, so what? He was free of the Doctor, and Omega didn't seem to have any problems with going his own way, even to the point of trying to eliminate all of Eggman's other robots. She seriously doubted Shadow was worried about _that_. So, he had a few odd memories; whether they were based on fact or not, they were in the past - fifty _years _in the past - and he had all the present and the future open to him now. The people in them were all dead anyway, so they weren't going to turn up and make demands on him.

Shadow turned his head enough to glower at her - scarlet eyes were good for glowering - then dropped his gaze to the ground at his feet. The toes of his hover shoes were beginning to look a bit battered, with deep scratches in the paint on the rims. Finally, he sighed. "You don't understand, Rouge," he said. "If... if I'm an experiment in immortality and healing, and I was created to... be a source of health to others, don't I have a moral obligation to offer that health? It's not like they'd take anything I couldn't live without. And if I was only created as a weapon of war, like some members of GUN seem to think... can I really run off and be free since it was their funding and their request that led to my very existence? Will they _let _me run free if they think I'm their property? And if–" he seemed to catch himself there, and she had the feeling he'd suddenly changed what he intended to say - "if I am an android of the Doctor's creation, do I owe him my allegiance for that creation? And if so, do I owe it forever, or just long enough to 'pay off' the cost of myself? And whether I do or not, how can I be sure that he hasn't slipped something inside me, some hidden program or override device, that might take control and make me do something I might not want to do?"

Rouge flicked her gaze upwards, from his shoes to his profile, then looked at the toes of her own boots. "Wow,"she said softly. "I don't know, Shadow." They walked on a little farther, and she thought vaguely how strange it was to be walking this way through a forest that was crawling with hostile troops looking for enemies. Occasionally there was a burst of gunfire, but it sounded far off and muffled by the vegetation. "What are you going to do?"

The black hedgehog paused, raising a clenched fist. "I have to confront Doctor Eggman," he said firmly. "If I _am _an android he created, then Professor Gerald's motives in creating the original Shadow don't matter; I do not belong to GUN, and whatever healing powers the original might have possessed were probably lost in the transition from organic to cloned android."

Rouge wasn't sure that the latter was true, but certainly the former was, if Eggman had funded the creation of this Shadow then GUN had no claim on him. Of course, convincing GUN of that fact might be difficult. And the Commander wasn't likely to care - he wanted Shadow dead, not conscripted. _Oh! _"Shadow," she asked suddenly, "do you know who the GUN Commander is?"

"The GUN Commander?" he repeated, perplexed. "That's the human in charge of the GUN forces worldwide." He looked at her, clearly wondering why she'd asked such an inane question.

"No, not the position; I mean the man. He _hates _you; not dislikes, not distrusts, but **hates**. He's convinced you're in cahoots with the black aliens, that you've been a spy or something for years, and he wants you _dead_."

"What? Why?" Shadow looked genuinely bewildered. "I've never met this person. I was created fifty years ago, and never knew anyone except a few people on the ARK, until I came to Earth and was put in stasis from then until now. Or the real Shadow was," he corrected himself. Rouge grimaced mentally. _He really is thinking he's an android at this point._ She had wondered at one time whether Shadow was the Shadow from the ARK or a clone Gerald had created after he arrived on Earth, but she had no doubts that this Shadow was the Shadow Eggman had freed from Prison Island. And she still wasn't certain why it mattered so much, but it clearly did– Something moved up ahead of them.

Immediately the two split up, Shadow dodging behind a tree while Rouge darted upwards as swiftly as she could. A small group of GUN soldiers walked into view, and continued on past them out of sight. Shadow stepped out and looked after them, but before Rouge could join him a strange, octopus-like creature jetted up, apparently swimming through the air. "Shadow," she heard it rumble, "our surface operations are nearly complete. We must get out of this forest, now. There is no time to waste."

The pale bat felt her jaw drop nearly to the forest floor below._ Shadow!? He... he __**is **__in league with these invaders? _She shook her head, refusing to believe it. It must be some sort of trick. _How could they have known anything about him? He was created fifty years ago!_

Fifty years ago. She felt a sudden chill. The Black Comet passed by the Earth every fifty years. _No._ She shook her head again, stubbornly. _I researched the ARK, all the secret files Gerald kept there governmental and personal. There was nothing in them about any aliens or... _She paused mid-thought as she suddenly remembered - _Gerald's son, __**Maria's father**__, was killed in an explosion while investigating the Black Comet. But, surely Professor Gerald wouldn't have collaborated with aliens that might have had a hand in his son's death! _And yet– She remembered the failure of the prototype that Maria had named Biolizard. And the unparalleled success of the second Project: Shadow, using a hedgehog as a base.

_Oops, where did he go?_ She looked around frantically, suddenly realizing that Shadow had left. Spotting him through the branches she swooped quickly over to join him. And for the first time got a good look at the ruins the Black Arms had taken refuge in.

Sheer treasure-hungry avarice instantly overrode all other concerns. She stared at the stone tower before her. Covered in moss and encircled in places by the aliens' red slime trails, it rose into the canopy with staggered balconies spiraling around it. Here and there she could make out geometric carvings in the walls themselves, and stone cobras stood sentinel on most of the balconies, carved hoods flared in warning. A flare of light and a sudden jerk on her arm yanked her out of her trance. Blinking, she realized that Shadow had just snatched her out of range of one of the fire-spitting blossoms she'd seen earlier. "Look out for that plant," she warned him belatedly. "It attacks with fire. It's some kind of alien organism."

Shadow snorted. "I should be telling you that, I think. Have you seen the red thorny globes? They're not native to this planet either."

Rouge nodded, then pointed upwards at one of the 'rubber band' vines she'd encountered earlier. It seemed to be another patch of alien or altered plants. "Some of them were, though. I think."

"Were?" asked Shadow, looking where she was pointing.

"That rubber-like plant growing there looks mutated. I bet it's the black creatures' doing. There are vines similar to that all over this forest, except for the rubberiness and that reddish glow. You know," she added, thoughtfully, "I wonder if they fused it somehow with that slime they use. It's got the same glow and is certainly flexible." She eyed the slime trails around the tower.

"Maybe," answered Shadow. "That slime stuff got fused somehow with the buildings in Westopolis, and did all sorts of weird things to them."

"Hmm," agreed the bat, rather vaguely. She was starting to focus on the tower itself again. "These ruins are a fine discovery. If these black creatures weren't here, _I'd _be searching for treasure."

"So I see," said her companion dryly. "Be careful, Rouge, and remember the aliens _are_ there. I need to go confront Doctor Eggman." He pulled back into the trees as a squad of aliens appeared, with a GUN patrol in hot pursuit. Rouge took wing again and got clear. After a moment more looking longingly at the stone column, she decided that it might be prudent to be sure Shadow got where he was going; after all, there were two hostile groups out here, either of which might decide to go after him.

Resuming her gliding jumps from tree to tree, she headed south, and spotted the black octopus - or another just like it - floating idly in a clearing. Automatically she crouched close to the branch, moving silently into position for a better view. A moment later, Shadow ran into the clearing as well.

"Having a little trouble with those GUN agents, are we?" he asked, mockingly, as he waved a hand the way he'd come. Glancing that way quickly, Rouge spotted several alien corpses half-hidden in the brush. She looked back as the creature laughed.

"What a _pitiful _bunch," the thing all but purred.

"What'd you say?" Shadow took a step back into a defensive pose. That was obviously not the response he'd expected.

"We're not here to exterminate these poor creatures. On the contrary..."

"Wha–?," breathed Rouge, leaning a little more forward. "What is he talking about?" Her keen ears twitched, trying to pick up every sound from the pair below.

Shadow was equally perplexed. "What are you saying?"

The octopus somehow looked very smug and superior - a good trick for a creature with a single eye and no face. "All will be revealed," it said grandly, and paused dramatically. "...tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" murmured the unseen bat. What on earth were the aliens planning?

"Shadow," said the octopus with mock concern, "you should rest. You need to be ready for tomorrow's ritual." Rouge's brain was absolutely buzzing as she tried to figure out what was going on. And then she saw the monster bulling it's way through the bushes behind the tentacled thing. Immediately the octopus scooted away, leaving the clearing to Shadow and the blubbery beast.

Shadow jumped back. "You scum!" he called after the octopus, then faced the monster. You're going down," he growled. It merely tossed its one-eyed head and bellowed at him.


	29. Countdown to Showdown

28. Countdown to Showdown

"Shadow," said Doom's Eye with mock concern, "you should rest. You need to be ready for tomorrow's ritual." Another black bull alien crashed out of the jungle as Doom's majordomo scooted away.

"You scum!" Shadow yelled after the Eye, as he faced off against the one-eyed hulk. "You're going down," he told it, as it bellowed and fluttered its ridiculous little wings.

And within a minute it had; as with the first, a quick flurry of homing attacks to the skull sent the thing off to whatever afterlife the aliens believed in. Shadow didn't stick around, but headed south as fast as he could through the trees. He needed to confront the Doctor before he left his base again. Fortunately, in this area the tree canopy was thick enough that there was little undergrowth to hamper him.

He heard the base before he saw it, the deep rumble of motors and clanking of machinery. The trees scattered the sound enough to make it hard to tell which direction it came from, but could not muffle it completely. Continuing the way he'd been going soon brought him in sight of the base.

It was impressively substantial in a way the badlands base had not been, and as technological as the castles weren't. Massive metal cubes and towers crouched below the limbs of some of the tallest trees Shadow had seen in this jungle. Metal corridors linked the buildings several stories up, but there were neither windows nor doors evident below that level. After a bit of searching, the black hedgehog gave up and simply teleported himself up to one of the corridors, as always being certain to give himself enough floor clearance. As he looked up from his landing crouch, he saw... them.

His mind may have been stunned by the sight, but his body responded instantly, flipping him backwards and away, to land on his feet facing... them. Him. Hims? Thirteen black hedgehogs, marked with red on quills and arms, with triangular white patches on their chests stood at attention; twenty-four scarlet eyes stared blankly past the shocked Shadow while one pair tracked his motion. _Huh!? What the..._?

"How can this be?" he burst out. "Who are you!?" He realized that twelve of the Shadows, standing in four ranks of three, were clearly mechanical; their white patches were painted on black metal, their hands comparatively clumsy grippers, and their 'hover shoes' actually _were_ their feet. The thirteenth, though, standing in front like a captain, was an entirely different category of being. Like the partial Shadow android he'd seen after the Egg Hawk blew up, this one was as sleekly black-furred as he was, the white patch clearly made of longer hairs. The hands wore real gloves, and the fingers under them appeared to be as refined as his own. The chest moved slightly, unlike the dozen standing completely immobile behind it, and not only were the eyes focused on the newly-arrived Shadow, but the eyebrows and mouth were beginning to draw into a frown.

"Listen up, Shadow androids," bellowed a voice overhead. The android's gaze immediately rose, and Shadow looked over his shoulder to see Eggman approaching in his little hover car. He momentarily debated standing to attention himself, but opted to remain in his frozen crouch; the Doctor did not appear to have noticed him yet.

Eggman's gaze swept over the assembled rectangle of Shadows. He seemed decidedly annoyed about something. "The Eggman fleet is strong, but those black creatures are a formidable adversary! I must return to the base to devise a new plan." He steered the hover car into a hangar-sized door nearby. Shadow couldn't hear anything but his heart pounding in his ears. "Shadow... Android?" he breathed. He had wondered, had seen hints, had even said it to Rouge, but the Doctor's words, combined with the furry duplicate glaring at him as its chest moved steadily up and down... somehow it was suddenly real as it had not been. "Am I... an... Android... too?!" He couldn't seem to catch his breath; the android at the moment was breathing better than he was. He remembered the dream he'd had outside the haunted castle, the rows of capsules facing his own as the doctor finished assembly of an android just like the ones across from him. Just like him? He'd thought he'd considered the idea and dismissed it, but now he realized he'd convinced himself that it was merely a dream, a nightmare engendered by his doubts. Was it a real memory? A true one? Had there been more capsules ranged to either side of his, with more Shadow androids stirring in them? He stood torn, staring at his doppelganger, and then heard the rumble of engines as a blimp pulled out of the hangar. The Doctor was already bent over something, mumbling to himself as it passed, and didn't even glance at the waiting androids - or notice the extra one. _The Doctor knows something about me. I know he does._ He had to follow that airship and catch the man.

As soon as the blimp was well ahead, Shadow edged his way around the androids - the _other _androids? The superior android turned its head to watch him, but the others ignored him completely. As soon as he was clear, he kicked on his hover shoes and skated after the blimp.

He wasn't really sure what he was thinking, except that he needed to catch Doctor Eggman and make him tell him the truth. He could see the blimp off in the distance, and dimly he wondered why the man didn't just use his hover car to cross the base. There were still no real entrances that he could see, though a number of the blocky buildings had chimneys and ventilation grills that vented acrid smoke. He had to slightly revise his opinion about the lack of entrances as an unseen door slid open and a squad of Egg pawns marched out onto the corridor ahead of him.

Shadow paused and braced for an attack, but the Eggpawns paid him no more attention than the lesser Shadow androids had. They marched mechanically to a wider place on the elevated path and formed up into ranks. Shadow approached cautiously. Thirty-six Egg pawns, all gleaming with fresh, unscratched paint, stood motionlessly at attention. Shadow continued past and sped up, then stopped short as he rounded a corner and found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

Actually, there were two guns, one at the end of each of Omega's arms. The E-series robot seemed nearly as taken aback as Shadow by their sudden encounter. The robot's torso swivelled as he lowered his arms. "Are you... the original?" he droned. "If you are searching for Eggman, he's fleeing aboard his airship the Egg Balloon. If you wish to confront him, then help me ground his vessel."

"I am," said Shadow cautiously. _Does he mean original as in the living Shadow, or just the first one he met? Can he tell the difference between the superior androids and living people?_ "How did you know I wish to confront Doctor Eggman?"

"You are not a Shadow copy, thus you have no purpose here unless you seek Eggman. Since Eggman held you prisoner, you are more likely to be here to confront and destroy him than to serve him. Also, during previous travels together you wished to know your origins and were unable to discover them, so it is logical that you would still seek to demand an answer of the Doctor."

Shadow had to admit that that was logical, given Omega's point of view. "I need to talk to him. I will not serve him, ever, but I need to know the truth about my past." He hesitated, then asked Omega point-blank, "Do you know if I'm an android or not?" As soon as he said it, he almost wished he could take the question back.

The scarlet robot turned his yellow-lit eyes on the hedgehog. "Eggman designed superior Shadow copies to be indistinguishable from the source by all mechanical scanners, including robots. You are not an inferior Shadow copy. This unit was set to prevent the capsule you were in from being opened, but not given data on its contents. I cannot tell if you are the source Shadow, only that you are the original Shadow that I was set to guard, as I can tell any of the Shadow copies from another."

"If you knew who I was then why did you ask?"

"You surprised me. The identification takes 4.253 seconds to calculate." Apparently considering the matter closed, Omega turned and began to clomp his way up the path again. Shadow glided after him, thinking hard. Shortly they reached a guard post, manned by Egg pawns that were decidedly less shiny and more battered than the ones Shadow had seen earlier. Omega, of course, sailed right into them, bellowing, "Eliminate all Eggman robots!" Shadow smirked and jumped to help him.

The two ran forward, leaving the guards in pieces behind them. The blimp up ahead disappeared into another hangar-sized building. Three armed Eggpawns guarded a human-sized door leading from the corridor into the same building. The Eggpawns started firing as soon as they spotted the trespassers. "Eggman combat robots detected! Destroy all robots!"

When the third robot went down, the door slid smoothly upwards. Shadow and Omega ran in to find that the pathway ended, leaving them several stories above the floor. The room was also separate from where the Egg Balloon had gone in; there was no sign of the craft, although Shadow could hear the engine droning on the other side of the wall. The only exit was across the room at their level. Shadow gauged the distance and decided it was too far to jump. Instead, he dropped lightly down to ground level. As Omega crunched down beside him, a squad of Shadow androids stepped out of the shadows. Shadow had a moment to recognize the closest as the lesser type, then suddenly they were launching missiles from their chests at him. Omega gleefully opened fire as Shadow dodged away and discovered that they were homing missiles. He managed to vault one android so that the missiles collided with it instead of him, and came face to face with one of the higher androids. This one didn't launch missiles, rather it launched itself straight at him. He caught it by the wrists and threw it across the room. The thing twisted in an eerily familiar maneuver, landing on its feet and gliding back. "Who are you, you imposter?" it demanded in Shadow's own voice. "I am the black hedgehog, Shadow! How dare you impersonate _me_, the Ultimate Life-form!"

Shock nearly finished Shadow at that moment; he had never even considered the androids speaking, and even though he had seen in the Doctor's notes that they fought over who was real, he hadn't expected to be denounced as a fraud. He barely managed to get out of the way of its first attack. But then his brain caught up with what it had said. The audacity of this... thing... accusing _him _of being fake! Fury surged in his breast as he skated forward to meet the android head on. It wasn't like fighting Sonic. Sonic mirrored Shadow's moves, but was distinctly different in appearance and personality. This thing was trying to take the only thing Shadow had left, his identity, and claim it for itself. It knew his fighting techniques as well as he did, although the homing attack was not as accurate. And as he finally landed, panting, beside his adversary's body, he realized just how good a copy it had been. If it hadn't been just a tick off with its aim when homing, he wasn't certain he could have beaten it. The realization was chilling in more ways then one. _So close; it nearly did defeat me. And if it was that good, and I am not much better, is that because our programming is the same, and our structure?_ He looked down at the body. One arm had come off, and the clear fluid he had seen before puddled around the shoulder, but other places, where his quills had scored superficial cuts, were bleeding what looked like real blood. There was something profoundly disturbing about seeing it lying there, like a premonition of his own death. Omega stepped up beside him and looked at the fallen figure. "Shadow's copy combat skills unacceptable!" he pronounced. "Most likely a defective unit." Shadow stared at the red robot. If the android's skills had been much better, _he _would have been the one on the floor.

The floor they were standing on suddenly heaved up beneath them, rising until it was level with the exit door. Shadow and Omega hurried out, running to catch back up to the Egg Balloon ahead. It wasn't very far ahead; apparently the battle had taken less time than Shadow had thought. "He didn't get out did he?" he asked the robot. "While we were fighting?"

Omega checked. "Detecting Eggman presence within Egg Balloon! Presence confirmed!" was the definite reply. They hurried on until they came to a turn in the path. The blimp continued on, towards another path several hundred feet away. Shadow smirked slightly and steered Omega to one side. "These rings are perfect for using my light dash," was all the warning the robot got, before Shadow pulled both of them along the glittering chain to the othe walkway.

They had to pass another checkpoint, while ahead the blimp actually landed. Shadow caught glimpses of the rotund doctor getting out of the blimp and entering the base proper in between smashing robots. As the last robot fell, he and Omega hurried to the door themselves. It slid open to reveal a metal hallway, with doors spaced along it. One door stood open, and Shadow glided forward noiselessly, signaling to Omega to wait. Peeking though the door, he saw Doctor Eggman - still in his hover car - riffling though some papers on a desk._ Now's my chance. I can ask him what I am._

Rouge's warning echoed in his mind. _'Remember that Eggman has no compunctions about lying if he thinks it will serve his purposes. He's done it in the past. If he thinks a lie will gain him more than the truth - or if you threaten him and he thinks you'll respond better to a lie than the truth - then he'll look you in the eye and tell you whatever he thinks you want to hear. Which might be the truth, or a half-truth, or a complete fabrication.'_ Shadow took a deep breath and stepped forward into the Doctor's study.

Almost at the same moment, a door on the opposite wall opened, and Eggman buzzed through it without looking back. Shadow glared at the door, then stepped back into the hall to signal Omega. The two quickly crossed the room and passed through the door after Eggman. "Now, Doctor," said Shadow, "you will tell me everything."


	30. Dr Eggman's Answer

29. Doctor Eggman's Answer

_Oops._ The new room was enormous, with a bipedal giant mech on a plinth in the center. Eggman had just settled his craft into the cockpit that made up the neck of the mech and was moving it forward a few steps.

Omega stopped, focusing on the massive mechanical construct. "Eggman detected," he announced unnecessarily. "Approaching this direction."

The scientist looked up and appeared taken aback by the pair's sudden appearance. "Shadow and Omega?" Suddenly he scowled in outrage. "Why you traitors! You twoare going to stop _me_!? Move aside!"

Omega at once settled into fighting stance, but Shadow flung out an arm, halting him. "Doctor please," called the black hedgehog, "I need to know... Those androids... the ones that, look like me..." he stumbled over his words, both desperate and terrified to hear the answer he knew was about to come, "am I..."

Eggman's glasses flashed as he tilted his head slightly. There was a pause that seemed an eternity to the black and red hedgehog... ...and then the human hissed, "Yes!!"

"Whaa!?" Shadow had known it, but to hear it... How _could _he be?

The Doctor chuckled grimly. "You and Omega are my creations! But you betray me as you stand here before me. So now, I will destroy you BOTH, turning you into scrap metal!"

Shadow nearly collapsed, feeling the room spin around him. It couldn't be... It must be... He wasn't... He knew that he was. Faintly he heard Omega cry, "Eggman, I will defeat you, once and for all!" He moved automatically out of the way as the mech crashed toward them, and was dimly aware of Omega fighting it, but couldn't seem to make himself join in. _An android. I'm... an android. Just skin grown over metal and plastic, with no knowledge or memories except what I've been given._ But then, his promise to Maria - was it even valid? He hadn't made it, hadn't even set foot on the ARK, ever. He was only a copy, made by Eggman to be used to conquer the world, as much a pawn as any of the orange Egg pawns he'd been fighting over the last week. He remembered the Shadow android attacking him, declaring that it was the real Shadow the Hedgehog and he was a mere copy. Was that to be his life now? Following Doctor Eggman's orders and sparring to prove that he was real? The fury that had arisen when the android denied his validity stirred again.

And with that fury, other things stirred as well. He began to chuckle grimly as images rose through the mists that still shrouded much of his memory - the capsule where Rouge found him; row upon row of capsules, each with a Shadow android inside, seen dimly through the green fluid of his own unit; a fiery yellow aura around him as he and a glowing yellow hedgehog battled in the chill of space with a massive lizard that clung to the ARK; the aura fading to be replaced by a red one as the chill of space gave way to the heat of re-entry. Shaking his head he said aloud, "The pieces are coming together. This 'Ultimate Life-form' they keep referring to is the black hedgehog, and he... died. And I'm its copy..." He raised his head and saw that Eggman had fled again, and Omega was standing in a doorway silhouetted against a red glow. "I must be an android that Doctor Eggman created." He abruptly strode forward, looking through the doorway into the base's basement, which looked like a scene out of hell. Lava, or perhaps molten metal, poured out of huge pipes into a lake of the same material, lighting the cavernous room with its sullen glow. The heat and sulfurous stench were incredible. The only path across the room was a set of rails suspended above the seething lake. _Hell, indeed. How appropriate to my mood_, thought Shadow. With a grim smile he dropped onto one of the rails. "Then it's clear what needs to be done! Doctor... you're going back to the place you created me from!" He kicked off, riding the rails across the molten lake towards a hole in the wall that presumably gave entry to another chamber. Behind him, Omega's feet clanked onto the rails in turn.

"I'll make you wish you had never created me," vowed Shadow. The anger still burned fiercely. Part of it was rage at the Doctor's arrogance in creating thinking, feeling beings - he included Omega and the deposed Metal Sonic with the superior Shadow androids in that category - and simply assuming they would obey his every whim. Another part was indignation that a project made to provide healing to those who needed it had been twisted into no more than a tool of war. There was a brighter anger that the flesh and image of Maria's beloved brother, who had vowed to protect the world for her sake, were being used to violate that very promise. And then there was the anger that he, Shadow the Android Hedgehog, was expected to obey the man who'd created him, irrespective of his own wishes. That he would not do. And to prevent the scientist inflicting such a burden on others, Shadow would stop him, permanently. He wasn't sure if Omega was after Doctor Eggman for the same reason, but it was good enough for Shadow.

The rail ended at a platform guarded by Egg pawns, and Shadow jumped directly from the rail into a homing attack. The Egg pawns were no match for him, and unlike Omega, they had never shown any sign of free will or thought. Therefore he smashed them without remorse, and ran down the platform until it ended at a wall. He stepped through the door there into a room lined with ore carts and shovels. He was almost at the door in the opposite wall when Omega thumped in. Shadow frowned back at the robot; Omega's footsteps sounded very unsteady.

Omega turned his head. "Secret door detected off to the right!"

Shadow looked and saw nothing. But by sliding his fingers along the seams of the metal plates he managed to find a catch. Behind the panel was a small dock, extending into a channel flowing with lava. Perched on the end of the dock was one of the alien floating disks. Shadow pushed it out over the lava, carefully, so that it didn't drift away. It continued to hover, apparently as unaffected by molten rock as by the contaminated energy fluid on Prison Island.

"Object airborne without use of thrust or engine components," objected Omega. "Does not compute."

Shadow looked at the robot - and frowned. Omega seemed to be wavering back and forth, and the hedgehog didn't think it was just heat shimmer. "Are you all right?"

Omega stuttered a moment, then managed, "Temperature rising! Overheat warning!"

Shadow growled to himself but told Omega, "Go back out and guard the entrance. I can take the heat. I'll find the Doctor; you just make sure no one else comes in." He was wondering how long it would take GUN patrols to find the base after they'd finished with the aliens in the jungle. He intended to take care of Eggman himself.

The red robot stumbled a bit as he turned, but left without protest. That in itself indicated how badly the heat was affecting him. Shadow could feel the heat, and didn't find it at all pleasant, but otherwise it didn't seem to affect him. He doubted that would hold true if he actually fell _into_ the lava, though. He stepped onto the hover disk and steered it down the molten stream that appeared to run deeper into the base. Eventually he came to another small dock and hopped the disk up onto it. Passing though the hidden door into another corridor, he stepped under a sort of mustached mask with glowing eyes. Apparently it was some sort of detection device, because the Doctor's voice suddenly rang along the hallway.

"Hoho, Shadow! GUN has surrounded this base and is trying to bring me down. Activate the volcanic defense system to shield the base with my lava magma." Shadow felt a surge of anger at the command, but then reconsidered. If he shielded the base, that would not only block GUN out, it would shut him and the Doctor in. That would give him a chance to do what he needed without interference.

"All right Doctor," he said smoothly. "Tell me how to activate this system."

Following the scientist's directions, Shadow dashed around the periphery of the base, triggering machines that controlled the floodgates that usually restricted the flow of the lava. Despite the ever increasing heat in the base, his anger had chilled by the time he reached the last machine. He knew exactly what he was going to do, and why he was going to do it. He did not particularly like the idea of utilizing Shadow's image to do the job, but it was the only one he had, and the only way to be certain that Doctor Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik did no more harm to the planet or its inhabitants. Omega couldn't take the heat down here (for that matter, Shadow had no idea how _Doctor Eggman _was taking the heat down here), and having the robot do the job felt like shirking responsibility. Shadow had made the decision, therefore it was his duty to carry it out.

As the last of the defense machines shuddered into motion, the lava levels in the base were already far higher than they had been on Shadow's entry, and rising fast. He looked suspiciously at the slow tide of incandescent, liquid rock edging up towards the platform he stood on, and wondered if he'd been tricked. Right on the heels of that thought, however, a platform lowered from the ceiling. Eggman's voice called cheerfully, "Excellent job, Shadow. Come on up!"

"Doctor," said Shadow softly. "At last I'll hear the truth from you!" He stepped onto the platform.

The platform rose up through a sort of airlock, and Shadow gratefully took a breath of air that was _not_ choked with fumes. The poisonous air below would have asphyxiated anyone other than the Ultimate Life-form or a robot. The elevator platform was set in the center of a large room that at first glance also appeared to be full of lava. However the lack of incinerating heat and deadly fumes demonstrated otherwise. Two walkways crossed the room, connecting doors in the center of each wall, and a circular pathway formed a ring midway between the walls and the elevator platform in the center. Doctor Eggman was seated in a four-legged vehicle whose cockpit was not much larger than his usual hover car, rubbing his chin. As the elevator came level with the floor and stopped, the human sat up and beamed at Shadow.

"You did very well, Shadow Android," he enthused. "You have surpassed expectations... equal to that of the real Shadow. Excellent!" Then his tone and expression shifted and he snapped, "Now give me those Emeralds!"

"Never!" replied Shadow.

"What!?"

"I didn't collect them to hand them over to you," the black hedgehog answered. "I collected them to DESTROY you!" A bit of an exaggeration, but the Doctor was hardly a model of truth himself.

Eggman went red in the face as he spluttered. "How _dare_ you! I created you... I gave you life..." His voice chilled to lethal levels of ice, "I gave you an _order_, or have you forgotten? Idiot!" He started shifting levers and the machine rose up like a four-legged spider. "Perhaps I need to teach you a LESSON!!" Three panels on the front of the machine, which had pictured Egg pawns, suddenly began to spin, revealing other pictures, but too quickly to see.

There was a wheel at the bottom of each leg, Shadow noted, as one panel slammed to a stop. Now it depicted a rocket on a blue background. There was a large yellow button below each panel. Glancing quickly over his shoulder to be sure there was nothing behind him, he took the left hand passage, stepping on to the encircling path a quarter circle distant from the Doctor's machine. A second panel slammed to a halt, also showing a rocket. Shadow had a bad feeling about what would happen when the third stopped. The Doctor manipulated something and the spidery thing rolled onto the ring walkway itself, turning to face the waiting android.

The third panel slammed to a stop, and as Shadow registered the rocket on its face, Eggman crowed, "Missile fever!" A half-dozen missiles launched from the sides of the cockpit and headed for Shadow. At the same time, the vehicle darted the other direction along the path.

Shadow dodged the missiles - which fortunately were not the homing type - and chased after the machine. He could hear the panels clicking again. This time one slammed to a stop on the robot picture again as he caught up. He leapt into a homing attack, aiming for a leg.

"Ouch!" He staggered to his feet, his entire body tingling from the electrical shock. The dratted thing had an electrified frame! A second robot panel came to rest. He noted the yellow buttons looked rubbery, so he jumped and targeted the one under the third panel. At once it stopped spinning, revealing what looked like a picture of his head, and the vehicle's spider legs crumpled beneath it. Just long enough for it to spin a hundred and eighty degrees and dart back the way they had come. He heard the panels whirring again as it passed him.

Well, at least he knew where he could hit it. He ran after it again and heard the Doctor laughing. "Hoho, come and take your chances with the Egg Dealer, Shadow! You never know what its going to throw out." A panel stopped on something that looked like a couple of tomatoes as Shadow raced toward it. He slammed a button again and was rewarded with a second tomato-picture. He slowed slightly, puzzling over the tomatoes, and the third clicked into place– and suddenly the machine was spewing bombs all around.

_Okay, not tomatoes then. Missiles and bombs... and robots and... and me? _He couldn't figure out why his face would be on the dials._ The Egg pawns, okay, maybe it summons some. So... it summons Shadow androids as well? _ Well, he could handle them if need be. He targeted the buttons of the Egg Dealer again. _Missiles again? Well they're not too hard to avoid. _However as he hit the third button and dropped to the ground, ready to evade the anticipated attack, he heard Doctor Eggman howling in dismay. _What?_

The machine did launch missiles as expected, but they shot straight up, then turned and crashed down onto the machine itself, staggering it. Expecting that the damage would inactivate the electrical defense, Shadow attacked the cockpit again, and got another jolt for his trouble. Growling he went back to the buttons.

This time it was his face that came up on the dials, and as the third one slotted into position Eggman howled, "Nooo! Not Shadow Fever!" There was a sudden flare of energy from the Egg Dealer and Shadow gasped. It was emitting Chaos Energy - not the pure blaze of the Emeralds, but more like the energy of the golden rings and the key he'd found in the haunted castle. He pulled it into himself feeling it again wash away fatigue and despair, then suddenly he raised his hands and channeled it back at the machine. "Chaos Blast!" If the Doctor could name attacks, so could he.

The blast of Chaos energy caught the Egg Dealer from below and flipped it over, spilling the Doctor onto the walkway so that the machine fell across his legs. Before the stunned human could react, Shadow was standing in front of him, absolutely focused on what he had to do. The real Shadow would not have been strong enough, he realized. He pulled out a Chaos Emerald, then another, and they danced around his shoulders, apparently attracted by the residual energy from the Egg Dealer. The Emeralds that the Doctor had lusted over and plotted around would be among the last things he ever saw.

The light flickering across his face, seemed to rouse the man. He made a feeble attempt to pull himself out from under the fallen machine, then looked up at Shadow. "I_ made_ you," he snarled at the black and red android in front of him, "and this is how you repay me?"

Shadow looked down at the obese human. He didn't seem nearly so powerful now. "I am Shadow Android, the Ultimate Life-form," he answered calmly, "A copy of Shadow the Hedgehog. With the power of these Emeralds, I will be stronger than him! This is who I AM!"

The Doctor suddenly went pale, the eyes hidden behind his glasses widening in shock. Something in Shadow's face seemed to have alerted him to his danger. "What!?" he gasped.

"Goodbye, Doctor," said the android cooly. He raised one hand over the Doctor's skull and brought it sharply down. The human barely had time to scream.


	31. Memories of an Android?

30. Memories of an... Android?

In a flare of light, Shadow appeared above one of the outdoor walkways. He shivered involuntarily as he landed, scanning quickly for signs of Shadow androids, but there were none to be seen. In fact, except for himself the low-railed corridor was empty, devoid of Egg pawns or even robotic fragments. The jungle beyond was unnaturally quiet.

Shadow started to sit down; the silent isolation seemed a good setting in which to review the events of his last encounter with Doctor Eggman. Before he could do so, however, there was a quiet whirring and an odd-looking little shuttlecraft emerged from the forest and headed towards him. As it neared the platform on which he was standing, he recognized Tails' airplane poking out the front of the craft, like a toddler under a tablecloth. The blue Sonic was standing on top of the shuttle. "What's up, Shadow?"

"Not you again." Shadow rolled his eyes. He did _not_ want to deal with Sonic at the moment.

"Nice to see you too," said the blue sarcastically. "Looks like those black creatures are headed out to space," he continued more seriously. Shadow looked at him sharply._ The aliens are leaving? That doesn't make sense. _Sonic, oblivious to the scrutiny, added, "We're on our way to the ARK, so I guess that means we're going too!"

"ARK," echoed Shadow softly. Involuntarily he looked up, although for all he knew the ARK might be on the other side of the planet at the moment. Could there be answers there for him, even if he was an android?

Sonic seemed to take it as read that Shadow was coming with them. He stepped back and waved at the open hatch. "Come on, let's roll. Next stop: the ARK." The blue hedgehog disappeared inside and Shadow followed. Perhaps he could do his thinking on the way.

To his surprise, Sonic actually left him alone. The blue dokan offered Shadow the co-pilot's seat, but seemed unsurprised when the black hedgehog declined. Shadow caught a glimpse of Tails' ears over the back of the pilot's seat before Sonic closed the cockpit door, leaving him alone in the cabin. Shadow sank down into a seat and buried his face in his hands.

He had intended to kill Doctor Eggman, to rid the planet of the man's constant plotting before he unleashed something less controllable than Chaos or the ARK, or did so when there were no Chaos Emerald-wielding hedgehogs (or androids) around. But at the last second he had found himself pulling the blow. The man was Maria's cousin and Gerald's only surviving grandchild, and even if Shadow was only a clone and copy of the original Shadow, he owed his existence to Gerald Robotnik. And, he had decided, he owed it to his 'father', the original Shadow, to keep the promise made to Maria. So he had left Eggman sprawled by the Egg Dealer, and discovered that the 'lava' in the upper room was something like oatmeal, dyed and specially lit to imitate the real lava below without the lethal heat and fumes; air blown through it caused it to heave and bubble fairly convincingly. Why the Doctor had felt obliged to imitate the lava below, Shadow had no idea, but wading across the muck brought him to a door in one wall. The garage on the other side connected to the doctor's private quarters, which had a large window which Shadow had used to teleport outside again. It was always preferable to be able to see your target.

And now he was on the way to the ARK. Perhaps he could learn more about the original purpose or purposes of Project: Shadow. He felt like he had an obligation to try to fulfill any such purposes if possible. At least it might give him some idea of where to go from here. He sat up and glanced out the window to see the sky was dark indigo, sprinkled with stars. There was no sign of the ARK yet, so he started prowling around the cabin. As he passed a door opening aft, he felt a very familiar pull. Opening the unlocked door, he saw it was the engine room, and there, amidst the machinery, was a glass case containing a single glowing gem. "A Chaos Emerald?" he said aloud. "You've gotta be kidding me, guys!"

He looked out the window again, and this time saw the half-moon shape of the space colony's asteroid. He felt an almost physical jolt as he looked at it; he _knew _this place. "Space colony ARK," he murmured, pressing his nose against the chilly window. "This place... so familiar... but why?" He did know it, which was impossible; he was an android, Eggman had admitted it, so how could he _know _a place where he'd never been? There were rumors in sci-fi stories that clones could remember critical events from their 'parent's life, but this was more than that. This was the familiarity that came from day to day life, where things had become so familiar you noticed their absence but never really their presence. "This is... where I..." The memory he'd gotten a glimpse of in the Doctor's base, the battle with the giant lizard suddenly returned and came clear: himself and Sonic, enhanced through the energies of the seven Chaos Emeralds, fighting the Biolizard which was the prototype of Project: Shadow. "Maria," he whispered, remembering the promise that had sent him into that battle. And after it... the fall... He closed his eyes and shivered, feeling again the chill and the exhaustion, and the knowledge that there was no way to escape his fate, and then– He opened his eyes in shock, staring unseeing as he concluded, "... died?"

He was standing in front of the Chaos Emerald, he realized. He needed the Emeralds, and Sonic knew it. Was that why the blue hedgehog had left him alone back here? He had to take the Emerald. Sonic knew he wanted them, and had left him where it was, and by going away had tacitly given Shadow permission to take it. It was an almost palpable force; it felt like someone was pushing his arm forward toward the glass. And it would be so easy to get. "This is like taking candy from a baby, which is fine by me." Without really thinking, Shadow smashed the class cover and grabbed the Emerald. Instantly an alarm began blaring, and red lights began flashing on and off, sending a jolt of instinctive panic down his spine.

"Shadow!" Shadow jumped and opened his eyes as he spun towards the door - that wasn't Sonic's voice! He stared, shocked to see Maria rushing out of their wing._ Our wing? I'm on the ARK? _"Shadow, help me!"

"Maria?" he knew that Gerald had told her to stay in her room and couldn't imagine why she'd disobeyed. _Wait, how do I know that? What's going on?_

"Please Shadow, I need your help!" Maria clutched at his hand. "Grandfather's experiments... something's gone horribly wrong!"

"What is it?" His mind raced for what else could be wrong. They already knew the Biolizard was loose, she couldn't know about the Artificial Chaos, could she? Surely the other Chaos lizards and the rats weren't also running amuck - but they were down in the labs near where the Artificial Chaos were supposed to be. The Gizoid was nonfunctional while Shadow had the Chaos Emerald... A small portion of his mind finally recognized the memory for what it was, like the one Doom had forced into his mind.

"The research lab... it's going to be destroyed. Something must be done! Please Shadow, I beg you! Help grandfather and those aboard the ARK! Please!" She tugged at his hand, then pressed it to her breast as she pleaded with him.

"I'll be there, Maria. I swear, whatever it takes, I'll take care of the ARK and the professor!" Shadow raised a fist in pledge. _I only wish I could save you too_, thought the part of Shadow that was still on the shuttle. "But do you know who's attacking the lab?"

"The Artificial Chaos. There's a message on the computer; the GUN soldiers that are stationed here are split up and some are cornered in the research lab by some of the robots! They broke out of their niches and are demolishing the lab; several are running loose on the ARK! Grandfather's out there after the Biolizard, so you're the only one who can help. And the robots are attacking people so Grandfather's in danger too! Please Shadow, hurry!" She laced her fingers together and clasped her hands under her chin, appearing on the verge of tears.

"Don't worry, Maria. I'll take care of it. Go back to your room and wait where it's safe." Well, safer, he hoped. He made certain she was retreating before he activated his hover shoes and skated out. He slid around the corner to find the globular blue construct hanging in midair. _(I remember those; I fought them again later, on the ARK with Rouge and the Doctor.) _Its back was towards him as it faced the two soldiers it had cornered. One was firing uselessly at the amorphous body while the other reloaded his gun. "Aim for the head!" shouted Shadow as he jumped and homed in on the robot's helmet himself. He disoriented the thing at least, as its attack against the soldiers went wide, smashing a light on the wall. He pulled Chaos energy and aimed again, using the resonance between the gem and the Chaos Drive that powered the robot to propel himself towards it a second time. All the practice in the Loop on targets suddenly had a purpose, but it was helpful that the Emerald and Drives naturally attracted each other. He felt something riffle his fur as he bounced off this time, and realized that he'd nearly been shot. Landing to take aim again, he saw the robot's head explode as one of the soldiers' shots hit home. Immediately the body dissolved into blue goo. "Tell the other soldiers," he assumed they had radios or some other method of communication, "they need to aim for the heads, the bodies will either absorb impacts or reflect them. If you destroy the brain or the power source, they'll lose cohesion." The last bit was called over his shoulder, as Shadow was already moving towards the next disrupted Drive feeling.

_It was a long battle and ultimately he and the GUN soldiers destroyed fifty-seven of the Artificial Chaos. The constructs had fortunately not gotten into the public areas of the colony, though they had gotten in to the "GUN lift" transport system, and from there they might easily have gotten into the colony-at-large. _

As Shadow fought his way free of the memories, the lights and sirens were still flashing and blaring in the engine room. _How can I be remembering these things? The Doctor said I was an android; my memories are bits that he imprinted in me. But how would he have known about the Artificial Chaos? It was the __**Biolizard's **__rampage that was reported to GUN! _He felt another memory trying to rise and tried to push it back down, but failed.

_The escape capsule's door slammed shut in the same instant that the lab's secondary door dropped to seal off the ARK against air loss when the capsule launched. Maria fell to the floor, blood soaking through her blue dress, as she looked over at Shadow._

"_Maria!" he cried, desperately pounding on the unyielding capsule door. He had to get out!_

"_Please Shadow," she gasped, "I need your help! Everyone's fate depends on..." she struggled for breath, "you..." One part of Shadow's mind watched her collapse, while another sat up sharply and protested - the memory was wrong! The Shadow in his memory howled "MARIA!!" as the capsule dropped out of the lab and towards Earth. _In desperation, Shadow reached to the power of the Chaos Emerald in his hand and teleported himself away, trying futilely to flee the worst memories of his brief life.

The bitter cold of space shocked him out of his panic, and he realized he'd jumped towards the ARK. He was close enough to be inside the forcefield that kept minimal amounts of air and pressure in the vicinity of the abandoned space colony, which was fortunate because even the Ultimate Life-form needed to breathe. _I'm not sure about androids, though. But as long as I'm in the fizz field I should be alright. Wait, what's that?_ There were flashes of reflected light moving around the ARK. Perhaps it wasn't as deserted as he'd thought. Suddenly he realized that the colony wasn't the only one with company..

"So," rumbled Black Doom, "you've finally come to realize just how abominable these humans are. It's time to make the final preparations for our ritual." The alien, who had materialized next to Shadow swept a massive arm towards the space station in front of them. "Hidden inside that space colony ARK is the most powerful weapon, able to pierce the stars... the Eclipse Cannon."

"Piercing..." muttered Shadow feeling like a hand was squeezing his brain, "the stars..." He realized belatedly that he'd never met the real Black Doom, only the image of him, while on Earth. If this - force of will - had the same effect on the lesser aliens as it was having on him, then it was no wonder that Doom was so certain Shadow would obey his orders. The hedgehog struggled against the pressure as the alien continued.

"That's right. The seven Chaos Emeralds are needed to demonstrate its full power, or tomorrow's prosperity ritual will all be for nothing."

"Prosperity ritual?" Shadow's surprise helped him shake off the compulsion. What was the alien talking about? "Tomorrow?" The Eye had said something down in the jungle...

"Now, GO!" thundered Black Doom, as he signaled a Black Hawk and the featherless avian swooped down through the nearly non-existent air. "What fools. Humans created the Eclipse Cannon to protect themselves from terror; instead... it will be used to destroy mankind."

Shadow caught the ear flaps of the Black Hawk as it passed and rode it towards the ARK. _He sent me that memory, I think, while I was on the shuttle. It fits too well with his comment, and it explains why I felt pushed to rip out the fuel source of a vessel I was traveling in. I don't think I'm __**normally**__ that suicidal. Although, I could be wrong._

He was close enough now to the colony to see that the flashes of light were sun-glints off of GUN robots, mostly engaged in fierce battle against various aliens around the colony's shield generators. And Doom's Eye, nearly invisible against the backdrop of space, jetting across to join him.

"Shadow, the promised time is near. Our forces are amassing to take the ARK. Destroy the defense systems so our attack force can get through," ordered the alien starfish. It chuckled grimly in anticipation. "At last, it's almost time for our ritual." A gold-armored version of the Black Arms' avian glided up. "The Black Volt will take you to the Eclipse Cannon."

Shadow nodded curtly, and the Eye darted away again, presumably to monitor the battle. The black hedgehog switched mounts. The 'Black Volt's armor might be very useful if he was entering a combat zone, though he had no intention of joining the battle over the defenses. He was trying to locate where the shuttlecraft with Tails and Sonic had ended up. There was a lot of debris around, complicating the search: rocks from the old shield that had disguised the colony as an asteroid for so long; outlying platforms that had once been used for experiments or maintenance; other platforms and tram-rails that appeared to have broken off of the colony itself; and general debris, including robotic scraps. _This place is a mess! Although, part of it is my fault, since I first triggered the approach to Earth and then helped Sonic warp it back into proper orbit. The gravity shifts must have broken a lot of things loose._

Suddenly a flash of blue caught his eye. It was Sonic, waving madly at him from one of the auxiliary platforms. Tails had apparently managed to crash-land the shuttle on it after Shadow pulled out the Emerald. Shadow yanked on his mount's left ear and jumped off it, onto the platform next to Sonic. The other hedgehog cocked an eyebrow at his darker double's steed, but said nothing about it. Instead he greeted Shadow with remarkable cheerfulness, waving him inside. "Hey Shadow, glad you could catch up," he said easily. Tails popped his head out of the engine room at Sonic's voice; seeing Shadow, the fox cub pinned his ears back and glared at him, then ducked back into the rear of the damaged craft. "I know you need the Chaos Emeralds," continued Sonic, now with a mildly chiding tone, "but you could have left it where it was until we got here. I was planning on giving it to you once we picked up the fake Emerald, anyway." He shrugged slightly, not seeming particularly concerned by the fact that he'd nearly been marooned in space. "But now that we're here, how about helping me find the copy? Do you remember it? Tails made it just a bit before we came up to the ARK last time, and–"

"– and you teleported back into the ARK from that booby-trapped capsule the Doctor had trapped you in," finished Shadow, remembering the event. "The fake Emerald is still here?" He wondered if he could hand it off to Black Doom as one of the real ones. And what would happen to the alien's ritual if he did so.

"Yeah," admitted Sonic, rubbing an ear and looking sheepish. "I, uh, kind of forgot about it, what with everything else that was going on at the time, and we never got back up here. He handed Shadow a small headset, and slipped one on his own ear. Shadow looked at the device a moment, then followed suit. "Just give a shout through this if you find the Emerald," said Sonic. "Tails assures me that neither GUN nor the aliens can eavesdrop on these communicators.

"What are those things?" Sonic interrupted himself, looking out at a flock of Black Hawks that were moving rapidly towards them. Before Shadow could answer, the blue hedgehog laughed with anticipation. "Aw, yeah," he called out to the approaching aliens, "bring it on! Looks's like the party's getting started. Time to rock and roll!" He really did look like a kid on his way to a party; he was all but dancing with anticipation. Then suddenly, he went completely serious and turned towards Shadow, one arm on the windowsill. "You up for this, Shadow?" he asked with every sign of genuine concern. And then, with a smirk, he dashed out of the shuttle.

Shadow ran after him.


	32. Under Siege

31. Under Siege

Central City lay partly in ruins, looking like the aftermath of a monster movie. Flames flickered here and there, the result of shorted power lines or ruptured gas pipes. Except for a few aliens that wandered aimlessly, smashing things at random, nothing moved on the streets. Many of the buildings were warped and altered by the infusion of the aliens' slime, and trails of it wove around and through others like glowing garlands. Other places were lit an evil green, as lethally altered energy fluid that the aliens had collected from Prison Island pooled in the streets, forming liquid barricades. Near the center, the park that Shadow had appreciated so much was scorched earth, dotted with rubble and bodies both alien and Earthly. Only the Presidential Manor stood untouched.

There was a slight crackle, and the voice of Black Doom rang out - not only across Central City, but across every city and town on the planet. It also resonated in the GUN Fortress, where the GUN Commander had taken the President for refuge. Rouge was there as well, patrolling the hallways with several other agents and the resident soldiers. Screens spaced along the halls and in every key room flicked through the scenes relayed by remote probes in Central City. The bat's large ears flicked as the alien began to speak.

"We are the Black Arms," the voice was deep, calm and completely uncaring. "We are here to take rule of this planet. Any attempts to resist are futile, and will result in death. You humans are so pathetic." A touch of feeling there, Rouge thought - utter contempt for humanity. "As of today... this planet is MINE!"

"What!?" "What did he say?" "Never!" She could hear the other guards murmuring up and down the hall. She stepped the President's office, a copy of his office in the Manor, in time to hear his own denial. "You're crazy," he announced to the voice. "We will not–"

The voice continued, "Now we will begin to exterminate all of the world's leaders who resist."

"Wha– What!?" in spite of her fear, Rouge grinned at the President's shock. Had he thought his position made him invulnerable? She lost the grin almost instantly as an alarm buzzed over the office's display screen. The scene of the Manor sitting amid the ruin of Central City slid over to make room for a view of the ARK from a monitoring satellite. A shocking green glow was pulsing on the colony's face.

_I know that glow, _thought Rouge in shock. _That's the Eclipse Cannon!_ That cannon had the power to shatter the moon, and could do serious damage to the Earth if it was fired in that direction. _But why is it green? The last time the beam was more blue, I think._

She forgot such inanities as Doom's voice rolled across the planet again. "Annihilation for this planet is near. It is time to embrace the dawn of your demise, and despair." A bolt of green light shot out of the cannon and with shocking speed appeared on the opposite side of the split screen, lancing down onto the Presidential Manor. Everyone in the room involuntarily threw up an arm to shield their face as the Manor exploded and the screen flared briefly green, then blanked as the camera in Central Citywas vaporized. Doom's malevolent laughter washed over the shocked Earthlings. While Rouge, the President, and his secretary blinked and exchanged shocked looks, the GUN Commander strode forward and began keying in buttons below the screen. After a moment, the half-screen image of the ARK, now quiescent again, flicked off and the entire screen lit up with a satellite view of Central City. The Manor and about half the city were simply gone. Even Rouge felt a pang at the loss of the buildings around the Park - some of the world's most precious gems and artworks had been stored in those museums. The opposite end of the city was still standing, although certainly damaged. Rouge couldn't tell if the nightclub she owned in Night Babylon was still there; part of that district appeared reasonably intact, and part was demolished.

The GUN Commander's voice drew her attention back to the President. "Sir, are you all right?" She turned to see him assisting the alarmingly pale human leader to a seat.

"Never mind me," answered the President, covering his eyes with a hand. "What about the people of Central City?"

""No need to worry, sir," said the GUN Commander, with just the right degree of confidence and lack of cheeriness to make his words believable. "Orders were issued yesterday, and everyone has been evacuated to the safe zone.

The President sighed, and shivered slightly. "Very good, Commander." Rouge looked at him with concern; he sounded exhausted - or defeated. Both were understandable, but neither desirable in the circumstances. The people of the entire country, as well as the invaded cities, would need their leader to be determined and confident. Besides, the bat had a bit of a soft spot for the President. Improbably for one who had gotten as far in politics as he had, he was a bit of an idealist; that was part of why he had hired her on the spot rather than having her arrested when he caught her stealing from the Manor. The casual arrogance and apparent superiority of this alien was hitting him hard. The Commander looked concerned for him as well.

Rouge had opened her mouth to offer some sort of encouragement, when an alarm went off. "Now what's going on?" growled the Commander. He swatted the response button.

"Commander!" came a panicky voice. "The invaders! Estimated over a thousand black aliens inbound. They've penetrated our outer perimeter!"

Rouge jumped, and stared at the speaker grille, feeling her ears folding against her head in terror. "What!?" chorused the two men. The President jumped to his feet, his tiredness suddenly gone as he looked as hard at the speaker as the other two, as if they all expected some miracle to jump out of it. A thousand aliens would overrun the base; not only did they outnumber the available troops, they had proved dismayingly resistant to most of the human firearms, and in close combat the soldiers hadn't a prayer. Rouge doubted that most dokan would have much of a chance against creatures that could fling cars around, and humans were far more frail.

"Sir," the voice on the other end swallowed audibly. "Another division is reportedly attacking our forces on the ARK, and..." There was a moment's hesitation. "According to reports, Shadow's also been sighted with the black aliens."

"Shadow!?" exclaimed the President. "I don't believe it." Rouge looked at the Commander who looked all to ready to believe it. In fact, the man looked downright satisfied.

"So," he commented grimly, "he's finally decided to show himself." He pressed the intercom button. "Attention all command units! Mobilize all Mech battle stations! Prepare all weapons to strike incoming vessels! Mobilize 'Diablon'."

"But sir!" objected the voice at the other end. "It's not ready yet!"

"I don't care!!" snapped the Commander. We have NO other option!! We MUST protect the President, at all costs."

"Y-Yes, sir!" came the reply.

The Commander stalked past Rouge, who followed him as the President's secretary and several guards pushed past her into the office. "Shadow!" snarled the GUN Commander under his breath. "_Damn _you! It's been fifty years," he pulled his gun from its holster, "justice will finally be served." Rouge flinched at the click as he cocked it. This man wanted Shadow dead, saw his chance and excuse to achieve it, and she still didn't know _why_!

Just then alarms went off all over the fortress; not 'Red Alert' alarms to warn of an impending problem, but actual 'Intruder Alert' alarms. Almost at the same time, a pair of Black Arms troops appeared at the end of the corridor, one raised a gun and fired at the human and the bat, the other simply charged down the hall towards them. The GUN Commander brought his gun up faster than Rouge would have believed possible, and took the head off the charging alien. Rouge flashed past him - on the wing - and did a neat screw-kick that took care of the shooting one. As her feet hit the floor she felt it shiver beneath her, and a HUGE arm came around the corner and caught her by the throat. A massive alien, built like a gorilla on steroids and with spikes armoring its shoulders, lifted her off the floor and hurled her at the wall. Rouge managed to twist enough that she didn't hit the wall headfirst, but she got what little breath she had left knocked out of her and slid to the floor fighting to get it back.

The GUN Commander advanced cooly, firing round after round into the giant to no effect. When he reached Rouge, he crouched and scooped an arm around her waist, then retreated back up the hall, carrying her with one arm while still firing with the other. They passed under a heavy steel door and he put her down and hit the control, only looking away from the approaching monster when the door had closed completely.

"Are you injured?" he asked her, as she stood up and he changed gun clips.

"No," she answered, a bit breathlessly, "but thanks for the rescue." She took deep breaths and rubbed her sore throat.

"I suggest you return to the President's office," he said. "You can be of great assistance by helping to protect him." He had no real authority over her and they both knew it, but he had a point. Rouge knew that she would not only be useful protecting the president, but safer, because the other guards would be watching her back the same as she'd be watching theirs.

But on the other hand... "So could you," she said, watching his face carefully.

The muscles in his jaw tightened. "I have an important matter to attend to elsewhere."

He started to turn away.

"On the ARK?" Rouge challenged. The tall human hesitated, and she continued recklessly, "Running away from an invasion of this base could be considered cowardice. Or treason, since the President is here."

"You have no idea what you're talking about," answered the Commander shortly, without breaking stride.

Rouge leapt into the air and darted swiftly in front of him, hovering so they were eye-to-eye. The man had to stop to avoid walking into her. "I know that you've got some sort of vendetta against Shadow," she accused. "A totally groundless one. He's the hero of the planet, and a _person_ - not some sort of property of GUN."

The Commander went very still, his mis-matched eyes widening in fury. "A hero!? He's been in league with these alien terrorists since he was created, and so was Professor Robotnik! I don't want him anywhere near GUN forces; I want him dead so he can do no further harm!" Rouge felt her jaw drop and closed it, pinned where she was by the man's fury - a very old and very personal rage.

"I saw them–" He seemed to catch himself and glared _at_ her instead of through her. "I know you've read far more of the Secret and Top Secret files than you have any right to access, but you don't know what Project: Shadow is capable of, because it's not in there. I _know_, I was there and I saw it!"

"Where?" demanded Rouge, with a mix of eagerness and dismay. "What did you see?"

"The ARK. I– My parents were stationed there, and I grew up there, with Maria. She loved –Shadow," the distaste in his voice was indescribable, "like a brother, and he dragged her off into the ARK when the rescue came, so that she died! She should have been rescued, like the rest of us children! And I saw them creating that horrid monster, pretending it was something rare and special..." He ducked suddenly around her, and Rouge was so stunned by his words she barely noticed. Suddenly she blinked, realizing he was gone and flew after him, but she reached the hangar just in time to see him leaving. She took out a small squad of aliens that had apparently been sent to destroy the parked air- and spacecraft, then jumped into her little jet. She hesitated, then decided that the President had plenty of help, much better armed than she was. So she keyed in the commands to seal the jet, rendering it suitable for space travel, at least as far as the ARK. Then she launched quickly after the GUN Commander, hoping she could get to Shadow before the human did.


	33. Racing the Past

32. Racing the Past

Shadow followed Sonic out of the shuttle and found himself abruptly dropping into space - the exit ramp wasn't resting on a platform! He saw some sort of green disc below him, and twisted to land feet first and BLAM! With a sound that blasted his ears even in the fizz-field's sparse atmosphere, gravity suddenly was pulling him sideways.

_Whoa, what just happened? _ He landed awkwardly on a platform and looked back up. From this angle, the green disc with its central pod was more recognizable - one of the artificial gravity generators that were stationed around the permanent platforms to aid in moving people and equipment, and keep them from drifting off once they were in place. Looking along the platform he'd landed on, he saw Sonic sprinting away from him. The blue hedgehog's cheery voice came over his headset.

"Shadow, don't you remember? We once raced each other here. This is just like old times! A race for the Emerald!" Shadow huffed as he kicked on his hover shoes and skated rapidly after Sonic. If that blue freak thought he'd beat him again... _Again? __**Do**__ I remember...? _

_Yes. _The memory surfaced as he ran along the platform - this one was really more of a corridor in space; it was a sort of connection for a lot of other platforms, and he remembered skating rapidly along it, calling Chaos Spears down on Sonic and Chaos controlling away from the other's own attacks. _I do remember. That was when Sonic had just figured out how to use Chaos control and his attacks had a lot of power but no finesse._ Much like Sonic himself. But Shadow had nearly caught up to him, and the blue was talking at him again.

"It's been a long time since the two of us ran along here together! Now, time to kick things up a notch!" Sonic jumped up towards a chain of golden rings and zipped off along it. Shadow scowled and increased his pace; he couldn't follow because the person light-dashing absorbed the rings as they went, converting the rings' energy into speed. He had to find his own chain leading in the right direction.

He found a set that went nearly the right way, which took him to a short platform - which turned out to have no other way off. Unless he just jumped, but with the current gravity setting he'd fall towards the Earth. But then he spotted another gravity pod_. I can't get past here without changing the gravity. Things have clearly drifted; that ought to be close enough to reach from the platform. _He gauged the distance quickly - long but doable - and jumped to it. As soon as he touched the generator pod gravity reversed, and he was now being pulled in the direction of the ARK. A muffled yelp over the headset made him smirk. _I guess Sonic was in range of that particular pod. Hope he doesn't fall too far, he might pop that swelled ego. _As he fell through a line of rings he light-dashed to the left, and found another platform, this time with a line of alien slime spiraling down from it. He hopped onto the slime and let it pull him towards the center spire of the ARK. It ended at another corridor-like platform and he skated rapidly along it. Something moving at the edge of his vision caught his attention and he slowed slightly - just as Sonic flashed past him on the other side. "Sorry, but that Emerald's mine!" crowed the blue hedgehog. "See ya!"

Shadow ignored him, frowning at the moving object. The Chaos Emerald in question was fake, and the 'race' was as silly idea of Sonic's. This was strange, and strange things recently were often dangerous. There were battles going on all around the colony, between GUN robots and aliens, but this appeared to be a craft of some sort, and it wasn't firing on any of the combatants. He watched it moving towards an aperture in the colony's face and suddenly knew where it was going. He vaguely heard Sonic's "Now, it's time to dash for the finish line!" as he pulled out the green Chaos Emerald and spoke to it. "Chaos Control!"

The room was chill and darkened, lit only by the minimal safety lighting that never went out, but he knew exactly where he was. This was the receiving gate, where the colonists and researchers greeted new arrivals or guests. He could almost see a brighter and much more crowded place, superimposed over the dusty dimness, and hear the echoes of laughter and greeting. "Why?" he whispered, his own voice echoing louder than the ghosts of the past. "Why do I know this place? I've got to find out the truth!" He clenched a fist in frustration; shaking it at the world in general. "Damn it! What does it all mean? These memories... the Doctor's actions and words... nothing makes sense!" What he recalled here was far more than any imprinted memory of a clone, or any flash-learned bit of knowledge. He had been here, and more than once. The Doctor must have been lying. These memories, and the others that had been surfacing recently... "Was it real?"

Sonic's voice in his ear made him jump, but it was only the headset. "No dice, Shadow! There's no way you're beating me now!" Shadow shook his head, amused in spite of himself._ He's so self-centered he hasn't even realized I'm not there anymore. _He turned sharply. _What was that?_

"Score one Chaos Emerald for the good guys! Sorry there, Shadow old buddy!" Shadow ignored Sonic, listening to the footsteps approaching from the landing bay. The door slid open and a human strode into the room.

He was tall even for a human, more than twice Shadow's height, wearing a GUN uniform and with his grey hair cropped short. "It's been a long time... Shadow." The voice wasn't familiar at all.

"Who are you!?" Shadow crouched defensively. "And how do you know my name?"

As he stepped into the glow of the safety lighting, Shadow recognized him at once, and realized fully just how long it had been since Maria died. The height and grey hair gave no clues, for he'd been a scrawny ten-year-old when Shadow last saw him, but the one blue eye and one brown made him instantly identifiable. And Mokie, as Maria had nicknamed him, had always been terrified of Shadow.

But it was hate, not fear that colored his expression now. In a voice chill enough to rival the space outside, he elucidated, "I know you... Shadow the Hedgehog. You killed everyone I loved... my family... Maria." He raised his handgun, aiming it at Shadow's face. "I've been waiting all my life for this day!"

"What!? Me... Maria?" He hadn't killed her - well he should have made _her_ get in the pod while _he_ set the controls, but the Commander seemed to be implying a much more direct sort of murder.

"Maria was like a sister to me." The fury and grief in the man's voice were unmistakable, but the gun was absolutely steady. "She was the only sibling I knew! And because of you," his voice broke in what was almost a sob, "she was killed!

"Witnessing it all... the plan to create that horrifying evil creature... that black creature, and that insane professor who unleashed it all!"

For a moment Shadow thought that he was supposed to be both the horrifying evil creature, and the black one - and then with a sudden shock the pieces clicked into place. "So," he wasn't looking at the GUN Commander, or his gun, but somewhere in the distant past, "the professor created me... with _Black Doom_?" It fit. It fit with what Doom had said earlier, it answered - or suggested answers - to several other questions...

"You don't fool me!" snarled the Commander, shaking the gun in Shadow's face. "It's not just about Maria. Thanks to you, everyone I knew and loved was killed when the ARK was destroyed. Worst of all, my family!" That was probably true; Shadow remembered now that his parents had been researchers, and of all the scientists and doctors on the ARK, only Gerald had survived. But it hadn't been _Shadow's_ doing! "Finally," the Commander said in grim triumph, "justice is served! I will avenge those whose blood was spilled!" The gun went off.

Shadow had anticipated that, of course and teleported himself directly behind the man when he saw his trigger finger twitch. He stood with his eyes closed, trying to sort things out quickly, while the man that had once been Maria's friend Mokie gaped in surprise at the lack of a body. He spun around in shock when Shadow spoke.

"If what you say is true, then I will respectfully accept my fate," said Shadow calmly. Whatever Black Doom had planned, it could only mean ill for the Earth and her people. If he was truly condemned to obey the monster, it would be better indeed to die.

The Commander's jaw dropped. "You mean to tell me that, you really don't remember a thing?" Clearly he'd believed all these years that Shadow was acting in full knowledge of his creators and their 'evil plot'.

Shadow didn't answer the question; if the man couldn't figure that out himself... "But I just need some time," he said, "to uncover the real truth."

The Commander gaped after the red and black hedgehog as he walked slowly across the room, heading deeper into the ARK. Shadow heard a thud behind him and glanced quickly back, to see the man had collapsed to his knees and was staring at the floor. _Gerald always said Mokie's worst trait was that he'd jump to a conclusion and refuse to admit alternatives. And the child is the father of the man. And that's not something an android's or clone's memory would be likely to include, either. Therefore, I must be the original Shadow, and Doctor Eggman is a liar, as Rouge said. So what do I do now?_

_Black Doom needs to be stopped. Whatever his plan is, it can't be good for the people on Earth. _The colony shuddered around him, presumably hit during one of the battles outside. He could hear in the far distance the sound of fighting, attenuated by the thin air of the fizz field. But inside, the colony was practically silent. He stopped and released the Chaos Emeralds he'd collected. Blue... green... yellow... white... cyan. "This makes," his voice sounded too loud in the still room, "five Chaos Emeralds." He remembered Doom's original instructions, _"As you can see, the day of reckoning will soon be here. Find the seven Chaos Emeralds and bring them to me, as promised."_

_If I have them, Doom can't use them. And if I have them with me, I can get close to him, since he'll think I'm bringing him to them like a good little alien. So I get the other two, and then go to Doom and try to find a way to stop him. _He grimaced. It was a pretty feeble plan, but he knew that Doom could track the Emeralds, so hiding them, or hiding with them, wouldn't work. He was fairly sure that he could prevent the alien using the Emeralds as long as they were in his possession, though. _I wonder if Black Doom has some way of controlling me. Could he __**make**__ me give him the Chaos Emeralds? Would Gerald have allowed that? _He remembered what Gerald himself had done to him on Prison Island. _Might be better to have Sonic hold some. _He snorted even as he thought that. _Sure, and he'd see something interesting and dash off leaving the Emeralds lying on a beach somewhere for an alien to stroll up and take. It'll have to be me, of course._ He looked at the Emeralds, orbiting around him like tiny moons. "Okay," he told them. "Two more and the truth about my past will be revealed. I'll finally know who I am." Whether he was a puppet of an alien invader, or a free-willed agent. The cloned android might have been preferable. The colony shook again, and he snapped his gaze up as a piece of wall rose past the nearby window. He moved closer and realized that several armed ships had joined the fray on the aliens' side, and larger robots on GUN's; each bore weapons that were now actually damaging the colony when they hit. As he watched and explosion ripped several walls off the colony face, and another large structural piece fell out of one of the GUN lift canyons. _Better hurry, or there won't be any colony left._

He used the Emeralds to feel for the remaining two. Expecting the other Emeralds to be on Earth, he hadn't really expected it to work, but to his surprise, there appeared to be one on the ARK itself - in addition to the oddly resonating presence that he guessed to be the fake Emerald - and another much closer than the planet. _How am I supposed to find an Emerald in the middle of space? Maybe Sonic can convince Tails to take me in their shuttle. _He didn't really like the idea of depending on the other hedgehog for anything, but there didn't seem to be much choice. Ultimate Life-form he might be, but he couldn't survive or travel well in vacuum, and while the Emerald was nearer than the planet's surface it was farther out than the fizz field extended. _Better find Sonic first, and make sure he doesn't leave before I get the real Emerald that's here._ Focusing on the trace he guessed to be the false Emerald, he set out through the corridors, taking shortcuts he remembered as he reached them.

Sudden crashing up ahead made him hesitate, then sneak quietly closer to investigate. The figure shoving furniture around the abandoned classroom turned out to be neither a GUN minion or an alien. "Vector?" he asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

The tall crocodile jumped and straightened up. He blinked at the new arrival a moment then grinned as only a croc could. "Well, if it isn't Shadow! We've got to make it to the computer room before this place collapses! Think you could give me a hand?"

"We?" echoed Shadow.

"Shadow!!!" Something hurtled past his head and he smacked into the wall as he dodged reflexively. Charmy the Bee spun in mid air and did a little jig. "Look Espio! Look Vector! It's Shadow!"

"So I see," said the chameleon quietly. He gave Shadow an apologetic glance. "Hello, Shadow. Can you help us?"

"Shut up, Charmy!" growled Vector at the still-babbling bee. "Come on, Shadow, help us out here!"

Shadow rubbed the side of his head where he'd hit the wall. "What are you looking for, exactly? Any of the computers can access the mainframe. The researchers had a separate unit in the labs, and the security HQ had some files that were supposed to be only accessible from their HQ computer..."

"What we actually need is a bit more specialized," answered Espio. "We're looking for - I know Vector-" he interrupted himself as the crocodile started to open his mouth, "we're looking for a computer that can access anything in the colony. Probably the one that security HQ didn't know about." He gave Shadow a meaningful look.

Shadow looked back and forth between the chameleon and the crocodile, ignoring the bee. He knew exactly which computer room the Chaotix were looking for: the one that wasn't supposed to exist. The one that could access any of the secret security files, as well as any file in the researchers' supposedly 'separate' computer. The one that Professor Gerald himself had shown to Shadow and Maria, and given them the password, and the one that the Professor had been able to communicate with on Earth through an unknown and illegal link to the GUN's mainframe on Prison Island. It also controlled the Eclipse Cannon. Even Charmy couldn't trigger that without the Chaos Emeralds, though. _I hope. _Shadow sighed, and said finally, "This way." He led them through the secret door to the elevator. "In there, and up to the top." They wouldn't be able to access it anyway; they hadn't asked about passwords, and he hadn't volunteered that information.

Shadow turned around as the lift doors closed and skated as quickly as he could toward the fake Emerald's aura. There was a lot more noise now; apparently the battles had made their way inside the ARK. The real Chaos Emerald seemed to be along the way to Sonic's location, he noted. Ducking through an old electrical room, where the energy fluid was used to power massive dynamos, he found a group of Black Arms in pitched battle with a patrol of GUN robots. He neatly crossed a lake of sizzling energy fluid by executing a series of homing attacks on a combination of GUN Beetles and Black Hawks, and spotted the Chaos Emerald shining coyly from the center of the ceiling, surrounded by a circle of golden rings. He noted one of the aliens using an odd sort of weapon that sucked an enemy closer - either causing the foe to fight the pull instead of other enemies or dragging it close enough to strike with a claw. He rendered the alien _hors de combat_ and appropriated the weapon. It worked very nicely on the Chaos Emerald and its golden court. He tucked the scarlet gem away with the others and went to join Sonic.


	34. Stalking Doom

33. Stalking Doom

Shadow located the blue hedgehog without too much trouble; he knew the halls and rooms of the ARK by heart and had no difficulty finding a path to the false Emerald. The occasional battles between GUN and aliens he encountered were annoying, but he mostly ignored them, only taking out robots or aliens that actually fired on him. There were no humans on the ARK as far as he could tell, only robots. And only GUN robots; whether the artificial Chaos had all been destroyed earlier or simply removed from the colony he didn't know, but there seemed to be none left in the ARK.

Finally he rounded a corner to see Sonic frowning at a map on the wall. Shadow smirked; he knew those maps of old, and he'd never found anyone who didn't get more lost by trying to follow one. "Trying to escape?" he asked.

Sonic jumped in surprise, grinned, then affected a bored expression. "Well, it's _dreadfully_ exciting here," he answered in rich-snob tones, "but I promised my fairy godmother I'd be home before midnight." Shadow snorted. Sonic grimaced with embarrassment. "So, uh, which way _is_ out?"

Shadow shook his head. "This way, Cinderella." He waved for Sonic to follow. His feet took the path back towards the shuttle automatically. They couldn't run there directly of course, but they could get close enough to see it, then use Chaos control to teleport out to it. _Cinderella_, he thought. Maria had loved that story - any fairy tale really - and Shadow had dutifully played Prince Charming, Rumpelstiltskin, the Beast, and seven dwarfs. (One at a time of course.) As he glided along he sorted through the memories - being back on the ARK seemed to be awakening them in droves - and wished futilely that he could go back again. "Maria," he whispered, remembering her dressed in a frilly gown that her aunt had sent up for Christmas. She'd woven a wreath from the flowers she grew in the hydroponics section, and carried a bouquet of the same; she'd been Maid Marian at that point, he thought.

"Shadow!" Sonic startled him out of his reminiscing. "Look, up there!"

"Huh?" he answered eloquently, following Sonic's pointing finger. They were in a 'glass'-ceilinged observation room, and a brilliant light was flaring overhead. "What is that?" he asked automatically, before he realized it was the Black Comet. _Doesn't look very black from here._

"Once every fifty years, that Black Comet passes by this planet," Sonic informed him with a laugh. Then he frowned. "Oh! Do you think those creatures are somehow connected with that comet?"

_Brilliant deduction_, thought Shadow scornfully, then gasped as something invaded his brain. _"Shadow," _Black Doom's voice seemed to echo around his skull, _"we seem to have a problem with rats running loose on the base. Return immediately to the Black Comet, and exterminate them!"_

"Black... Comet," he gasped, and realized he was on his knees, holding his head as if to shut out the voice. "Ugh," he groaned, trying to get up again.

"Shadow," Sonic sounded genuinely worried as he offered the black hedgehog a hand, "what's wrong!?"

"I think you're right," Shadow shook his head, trying to clear it. He looked at the comet again and suddenly realized where the last Chaos Emerald was. Floating in space, yes, but not by itself. "I feel it... they're up there," he said, referring to both Black Doom and the Emerald. He ignored Sonic's hand and stood up. "That's where the answers are... I've got to get to that comet!"

"Well, there's the shuttle," said Sonic, pointing out the vessel, now floating next to the platform it had collided with. Shadow clapped his own hand over Sonic's pointing one and teleported them both up to the platform. Sonic smothered a yelp as they landed, yanking his hand free. Then he cocked an eyebrow at Shadow and asked, "Race you?" as he dashed for the shuttle's ramp.

Tails dutifully took them to the Black Comet, though his expression clearly said that he doubted the hedgehogs' sanity. His evident skepticism deepened when Sonic cheerfully asked him to 'round up the gang for the big finale', but with a sigh, the little fox agreed. Shadow waited impatiently for a chance to ask Tails to scan the Comet for habitable spaces. But Sonic abruptly clapped a hand on the black shoulder and, stretching the other over the artificial yellow Emerald in the engine core, bellowed, "Chaos Control!"

Shadow's startled gasp turned into a choking fit. The air was freezing cold and had a peculiar odor that burned his lungs and throat. "Idiot!" he gasped finally, "You should have checked for breathable air!" In addition to the danger of jumping into an apparently solid object blind, the blue idiot had risked asphyxiating the both of them. His fury was only slightly mollified by the fact that Sonic was having as hard a time breathing as he was. Adapting somewhat to the atmosphere, Shadow looked around, resisting the urge to rub eyes that were also stinging from the fumes in the air.

The interior of the comet was swirled and striated in shades of black and purple, shot through with patches of the alien slime. The cavern they were in was dimly lit by the slime's red glow, although torches burned bluely in several areas. The ground was not quite solid; it had a rocky texture but a slight give, as though it were either a living organism or the dried secretions of one. The two hedgehogs were standing on an island of the strange material, surrounded by a lake of purple and red that stretched to the walls. Pillars of the rock-like material stood near the edge of the lake, etched in alien patterns, and the alien fruits were dotted around. Shadow stepped cautiously to the edge of the lake. It was clearly the source of the acrid fumes, but he couldn't determine if it was actually fluid, or some sort of dense gas that lapped against the shore. It was definitely _not_ water, however. Plumes of noxious vapor rose from it in the frigid air. The black and red hedgehog backed up again. Whatever it was, he had the feeling that it was toxic on contact. Sonic had regained his own breath and was looking around, but with a uncertainty that Shadow had never seen in him before. When he saw Shadow looking at him, though, he slapped on his trademark grin and attitude.

"Reeks a bit, doesn't it? I think that tunnel's the only way out," he gestured to a dark spot on the wall, "but I'm not sure how to get over there." The grin faltered a bit as he looked at the lake. "Um, I'm not really much of a swimmer."

"I don't think anyone could swim in that stuff," Shadow said, "at least not anyone from Earth. Not if they wanted to stay alive. Hmmmm," he looked around again, considering. No slime trails nearby, no ring chains nearby... He crossed the island in the direction of the presumed tunnel. Perhaps the 'water' was shallower there? Although he still didn't think wading was a good idea. Sonic poked around the rocky edge of the island, while Shadow frowned at the lake. It wasn't really possible to judge the depth, and he was NOT going to put a foot in to test it. Sonic evidently had left the fake Emerald in he shuttle, merely using its energy to teleport them both here, and Shadow did not want to pull out one of the real ones to teleport, lest it attract attention to them before he was ready..

"Hey, look!" Sonic poked behind a rock with his foot, and one of the aliens' hover discs drifted out. The blue hedgehog looked around a bit more, then shook his head. "I think there's just the one."

The two dokan regarded the disc dubiously. It was going to be tricky to fit two people onto it, although at least they didn't seem prone to tipping. Finally Shadow stepped onto it. It was better than alerting Black Doom that the Emeralds were all on the Comet. "I steer," he said firmly.

"What, has Tails warned you about my driving?" Sonic joked as he got on the disc behind Shadow, and clung to the other's waist. "I just hope we find another one soon. No offense Shadow, but you're not really my type."

"Cheer up," advised the black hedgehog, as he started the disk across the murky surface. "It might have been Amy you had to share a disc with."

Sonic loosened his grip enough to jab Shadow in the ribs. "Hey, she's not that bad. Just... a little enthusiastic."

Shadow snorted. "And the Biolizard was just a little upset." He heard Sonic chuckle behind him. The tunnel twisted a bit, then opened up into a far larger space. It was divided into sections by low walls, but the ceiling was far above that, lit by faint spots of light like stars. Black Hawks and the armored Black Volts glided through the intervening spaces, and ropes of slime twisted and drooped everywhere, twining into masses that glowed a sullen red. Distant grunts and cries of various aliens could be heard, and somewhere the crackle of human-type guns mingled with the higher-pitched zaps of alien weapons. Shadow steered their tiny craft towards a collection of islands in the lake, which seemed to fill this section as well.

"Look out!" cried Sonic. "There's something down there!"

Shadow had already spotted the faint motion below the surface, and swerved the disc sharply as one of the giant worms erupted out of the misty depths. Sonic twitched, but restrained himself; Shadow wondered whether the blue wanted to jump to attack the creature or just leap for the closest island. Certainly they couldn't fight it out here; his skin was stinging where the alien substance had spattered on his fur when the creature emerged, and he was certain that actually falling in would be fatal. As they reached the isle and stepped off the disc, he glanced down the see that the stuff had actually burned through his fur, leaving bare spots.

Sonic looked around the island and rubbed his arm, where the pale flesh was marked with a livid burn mark. Since he'd been behind Shadow, he'd been mostly protected from the splatter. "Hey, look! Here's another one of the disc things. And a box? What do you suppose is in there?"

"One way to find out," said Shadow. Stepping forward, he kicked the red crate sharply. It appeared to be made of solidified slime, and broke open when he struck it. "Hmmm." He picked up one of the alien weapons that had been inside. Pointing it at a weird outcropping of 'rock' that pulsed slowly to reveal a green glow within, he pressed a button located conveniently under his fingers on the grip. A red bolt zapped out and the alien formation shattered. "Well," he said thoughtfully, "that should take care of ambushers." He offered a second gun to Sonic, who skipped back, hands raised.

"Nuh-unh! I told you, I don't use guns, Shadow!"

"You can't possibly defend yourself against one of those things under the lake with a homing attack," the black hedgehog pointed out cooly. "The residue on its skin would probably burn you, and if you missed your landing and fell into the lake... no more Sonic the Hedgehog to save the world."

He'd figured that an appeal to Sonic's ego would work, even if common sense failed, but the blue hedgehog was surprisingly adamant. Finally Shadow gave up. Apparently he'd have to provide the protection for this venture. The rest of the contents of the crate appeared to be survival-type gear and rations for the aliens; none appeared useful to his mission. He gave a brief demonstration on how to use the hover disc, then the two set out across the dark lake again.

The walls in this area subdivided the lake into bays or alcoves, ranged along a canal that hopefully would give access to the core of the comet, where Shadow could feel the Chaos Emerald (and where he suspected Black Doom lurked). In the third bay, the pair located the battle that they'd been hearing; a swarm of aliens in the mostly dry area were smashing a squad of GUN robots. Sonic, of course, immediately guided his disc to land, where he took out attacking aliens with a speed and precision that even Shadow found impressive. Unfortunately the GUN robots were not able to distinguish between aliens and hedgehogs, and Shadow had to take _them_ out to stop them shooting at him and Sonic. Sonic made one brief protest, but after having to dodge a fusillade of shots he let Shadow finish in peace.

The GUN forces had their own supply crates. That seemed a bit odd, but perhaps they were preliminary to a human invasion once the robots had cleared the area, or maybe it was just military SOP and supplies were delivered to all combat sites, regardless of actual human presence. Shadow dismissed the question, he was far more interested in the sight of one of the black crates he had seen before. He quickly opened it and found the contents the same as the others'. He claimed the Shadow rifle for himself, then used the heal cannon on himself and Sonic to heal the burns caused by the toxic lake. He even managed to convince the other dokan to carry the heal cannon, since it wasn't _really _a gun, but a first aid tool. Besides, it was blue. Shadow snorted mentally at Sonic's vanity when that turned out to be the deciding factor, pointedly ignoring the fact that part of the reason he preferred his Shadow rifle was because it was as sleekly black and red as he was. Sonic had either the grace or the intelligence not to point that out. He had collected the dozen or so rings that were also on the island, and handed half to Shadow, who fed them into his chosen rifle. Then they jumped back onto their hover discs and continued.

It was a long process; although Shadow could tell exactly where the Chaos Emerald was, the interior of the comet was a maze, and the large areas covered in deadly lake didn't help. In addition to the black-scaled worms, there were gold-scaled ones, although both types were vulnerable to Shadow's rifle. Strange things that resembled beating hearts could be seen deep beneath the surface at times, but they didn't seem to be mobile. And then there were occasional battles on the islands they passed, but the islands themselves were all fairly uniform - one might have more pillars, and another odd, blue-glowing starfish rocks, but Shadow was truly beginning to wonder if the comet was larger inside then out - or if he and Sonic were going in circles - when they encountered still another skirmish.

Sonic had insisted on joining any battle they ran into, and this was no exception. Leaping from his disc to the island, the blue hedgehog darted straight into the battle. Shadow's opinion was that since all the GUN forces they had seen so far were robots, there was no reason to get involved; in fact it might be a good idea to leave them to distract the aliens from their furry invaders. But Sonic was adamant about protecting even the human's robots, despite the fact that said robots invariably turned on the two hedgehogs, and despite the other fact that he routinely battled Doctor Eggman's robots. His reply, when Shadow had asked the difference, was: "But Eggman's a bad guy." This time however, Shadow could hear the grunts and bellows of a living dokan amid the gunfire, so he joined in a bit more promptly than usual.

With the aliens and robots both inactivated - except for one damaged robot that was determinedly trying to walk through a pillar and ignoring them entirely - Shadow had a chance to recognize Knuckles. Sonic had already greeted the echidna, and demanded, "What are you doing here? Did Tails bring you?"

Shadow didn't hear the echidna's reply. He'd noticed movement nearby, and walked to the side of the island nearest the cave wall. A pair of circular platforms, inscribed in more of the intricate, alien runes, were rising and falling between the island and the wall. A ledge about twenty feet up appeared to open into a tunnel. _If I jumped on this one at the bottom of its motion, I should be able to jump to the other one and ride it on up to the platform's level. _Realizing he had company, he turned to look at the other two dokan.

Knuckles grinned at him. "This is going to be the final showdown, Shadow!" he exclaimed with clear anticipation. "I'll tear up this alien comet with my bare hands!"

"You're taking your gloves off?" Shadow asked in spite of himself. As the startled echidna looked at his gloved hands, Sonic snickered.

"Uhh, no," said Knuckles, after a moment. "I mean without guns or shovels. Except I need to get away from that stuff first." He waved at the dark lake below the moving platforms.

"Very wise," agreed Shadow solemnly. "Going up?" He jumped onto the lower platform as it reached the nadir of its motion, and Sonic and Knuckles jumped after him. As it reached its peak, the second platform reached its own lowest point, bringing them briefly level. The three leapt to the second and rode it up to the ledge. As they stepped onto the ledge they saw that it lead into a short tunnel. A second tunnel opened off to one side, but straight ahead was dry floor and a huge, transparent figure of Black Doom.

Sonic crowed with excitement. "Well, Shadow, looks like we've reached the climax of this little game! Time to make the big boss man responsible for this invasion step up and play!" Without waiting for a response, he dashed towards the looming hologram. Knuckles followed, clenching his fists to emphasize his trademark spikes.

Shadow, however hesitated. He thought he'd seen a figure moving in the side tunnel that looked like Doom's Eye. Leaving the others to pursue the hologram, he skated silently across the yielding floor to the tunnel. Immediately some sort of membrane snapped shut behind him, and tentacles extended out of the walls. Unlike the other tunnels this one had a smooth, membranous lining that resembled an enormous esophagus. _Ick. I really wish I hadn't just thought that. _He vaporized the tentacles with a few quick shots from his gun. _At least the rifle is effective. And the fact that the membrane glows is nice; always helpful to see where you're going. Now, where did that Eye get to?_

"Shadow," said the creature smoothly, sliding into view from behind a ruined tendril, "those humans are trying to ruin our base. Activate the shields and keep the comet safe from attack."

Shadow felt his ears flattening. _Does he __**really**__ still think he can give me orders? I haven't done anything he's said yet... On the other hand, if I block Black Doom into the heart of the Comet, I can deal with him without anyone else interfering or getting hurt._ He still hadn't quite decided what he was going to _do _when he faced Black Doom, but first things first. He raised one ear inquisitively - not that he expected the earless alien to be able to read his body language. "Where are these shields, and how do I activate them?"

"This way," said the creature, giving an odd impression of relief, "I will show you where they are. And you need only hit the switch with an appendage or a weapon discharge."

"Show me, then," said Shadow quietly. He grabbed a few rings as the alien moved away and fed them into his gun as he followed. _Time to beard this lion in his den._


	35. Bearding the Alien

34. Bearding the Alien

Doom's Eye led Shadow around a corner to a strange-looking device that stood on a low pedestal. "That is the shield switch that controls the comet's defenses. Hit the switch to activate the defenses; that will open the left-hand path, which is easier to navigate."

Shadow looked to the left and saw a sort of bridge leading over a low canyon to a red-tinted forcefield. Looking along the canyon, he saw Sonic and Knuckles still running towards the hologram of Black Doom, although the image seemed farther away now. Turning back to the shield switch, he realized with a shock that the 'lights' flanking it were actually pods, each containing a Black Arms curled in fetal position, like some sort of chrysalis. The lower part of the pods appeared to be secreted, like much of the rest of the comet's interior, but the transparent upper membrane with its greenish glow was eerily reminiscent of the pod Dr. Eggman had stored Shadow and the Shadow androids in. Shivering at the memory, he raised his rifle and fired a shot at the switch.

The mechanism swung around from red to blue, and a new forcefield - this one blue-tinted - appeared in the canyon, cutting him off from the path Sonic and Knuckles had taken. But at the same time the red barricade vanished, as Doom's Eye had intimated, revealing a gold-armored Black Volt feeding in a niche behind it. It chittered warningly at Shadow and the Eye as they approached, lit by swirling bits of blue light in two pillar lamps on its ledge.

For it was a ledge, Shadow realized. He stood high above the crenellated lake of thin liquid or thick gas, looking across to a central structure that rose to the roof of the cave, lit by dozens of white lights, like the windows of a human skyscraper. And somewhere in that mass was the seventh Chaos Emerald.

"Tame the Black Volt," instructed the Eye, "and use it to get to the next shield control."

The black hedgehog looked at the Black Volt. He reached for the tendril-like ears and it tried to bite him. Taking a guess at the alien's definition of 'taming' he clobbered it across its flat snout, and it subsided. Then he caught hold of the long ears and vaulted onto its back. Unbidden, the creature left the ledge and set out purposefully into the darkness. In short order, Shadow spotted the next trigger mechanism, and dropped off his unwilling steed. As before, flipping the switch replaced a red forcefield blocking one path with a blue one sealing off another. He skated rapidly along the newly-opened hallway.

There were five shield switches in all, it turned out, requiring two more Volt-back rides and the dodging or defeating of innumerable Black Arms. There were a few of the normal ones that had been plaguing him since the invasion started, and large numbers of worms (which could erupt from the floor as well as the lake surface) and giants. He also encountered a new type of elite soldier, marked by golden armor and the ability to teleport out of danger. Usually they reappeared directly behind him, which made fighting them a rather dizzying prospect. However, the fact that they were using a low-level of Chaos power to perform this maneuver made it simplicity itself for Shadow to predict where they were going to appear, so he always had a strike ready before they could readjust. _Hmmm, these are the first ones other than Black Doom that seem to be actually __**using**__ Chaos powers. Most of them seem to possess a minimum level of the power, but I don't think they can do anything with it. Unless that's how the worms manage to tunnel through everything, they're using Chaos control to remove the rock or whatever and put it behind them as they travel._ Musing on the problem, while keeping a sharp eye out for attackers, he arrived at the last shield and swatted the final switch. And there was Black Doom in front of him - guarded by one of the blue shields he'd activated along the way.

"You've done well, Shadow," rumbled the floating alien leader. "I'm very impressed you've made it this far..."

_I've had enough of this! _The sound of running footsteps made Shadow glance back over his shoulder, although he quickly returned his gaze to the red-eyed alien. He eyed the forcefield - and spotted the weakness as Sonic and Knuckles ran up to flank him. Black Doom hovered on an island in another lake of mists, accessed normally by a pathway that the forcefield was now blocking. But the shield was **only** blocking the path. Shadow darted forward and jumped off the path, catching hold of a torch that was set into the side of the pathway next to the shield. Using the torch as a pivot, he swung himself back onto the pathway on Doom's side of the shield. "Black Doom!" he declared as he marched towards the floating figure, "Your rule ends here and it ends NOW!"

"So you're behind all this," called Sonic from behind Shadow. "Like it or not... the game's over!"

Black Doom, far from being intimidated, seemed amused by the challenges. "Fools!" he chuckled derisively. "The Black Arms are more than superior," - he seemed to grow as he drifted slowly towards Shadow - "we are perfect! Do you really think you have any _real_ chance of defeating us?" His laughter rolled over the three dokan.

"It's _you_ who should be scared, Black Doom," replied Shadow. "I made a promise to Maria to save the planet she loved so much, and I **will**!" He had faltered with Doctor Eggman perhaps, but the Doctor had never actually wanted to destroy the Earth and eliminate its people, he'd intended to rule them. What Black Doom was truly after was still unclear, but he definitely intended harm to the planet and those living on it. The thought of Maria's dream-Earth overrun by giant worms and deadly, glowing plants was intolerable. Black Doom must be stopped.

The alien seemed to swell a bit more, his deep voice rippling with fury. "Then get ready to die! Let me show you the ultimate power in the universe!"

Shadow tensed, mentally checking on the Chaos Emeralds. He still had his six; Black Doom was in possession of the other. But it wasn't the Emerald's power that Doom used - at least, not directly. With a gesture, a swarm of purplish blobs appeared in front of him and launched themselves at Shadow. As he dodged he had a glimpse of Sonic and Knuckles fending off an attack by elite Black Arms on the far side of the shield.

Shadow tried to get around the purple things - they looked like meteorites but appeared to be made of the same material as the comet - but the source-point moved to stay directly in front of him. Then, suddenly they stopped... but Doom was nowhere to be seen. Shadow straightened up, and opened his mouth to call out– and with a flare of Chaos energy Doom appeared beside him and unleashed a scything blade of raw power.

Shadow jumped as much from surprise as through planning, and that was all that saved him. The force blade whipped across the surface of the island, spinning like a boomerang and scything through the legs of an unfortunate Black Arms giant that had somehow ended up inside the shield. When it hit the shield it reflected back, and Shadow jumped over it again, spinning to see Black Doom dematerialize as the blade neared him. Instantly the thing vanished. Shadow dashed across to a boulder and jumped on top, looking for Doom. _He's not going to run away now. He wants to show me who's boss, so, _he twisted quickly, trying to watch the ground in back and in front at the same time, _he'll try to appear where I least expect it. Like there!_ Shadow dove flat on the boulder as Doom appeared not at ground level, but level with the top of the rock, and the force blade passed over his head. Then the hedgehog had to flip off of the boulder entirely as another swarm of purple meteors buzzed towards him. This time, though, Black Doom moved away but the meteors' point of origin remained stationary. Shadow timed his run carefully, and darted out to target Black Doom with a homing attack.

He managed to land two hits on the alien overlord before Doom vanished again. Expecting a third hit, Shadow landed badly and toppled forward to his knees. As he stood up he caught a glimpse of Knuckles, on the far side of the forcefield, hurling another of the giant aliens not only into the air but over the shield. _Whoa. I guess he's stronger than I thought._ He shook his head slightly. _Better stay focused. There!_ He felt the energy shift and managed to hit Doom as the alien materialized. This time the creature did something... strange. The outline of the floating humanoid fuzzed and multiplied.

"Give it up, Shadow," rumbled the alien as Shadow's next homing attack passed harmlessly through the blurred images. "You cannot defeat me." And the mirages vanished completely.

The black-and-red hedgehog didn't waste his breath sparring verbally. He managed to pinpoint Doom's location as his enemy warped back into existence, and whacked him hard. This time he got in three good hits before his opponent vanished, and landed much more adroitly on his feet.

Another swarm of meteors buzzed him, swirling around like a cloud of angry bees. Sonic's urgent voice reached him - "Shadow! JUMP!" - and he leapt into the air, just as something slammed hard into one ankle. He fell to the ground, looking out under the meteors to see the force blade sweeping back towards his face. Shadow snatched frantically at the Emeralds' power and teleported himself away - right into the path of a second blade. He scrambled gracelessly to the top of a boulder, and another flurry of meteors zoomed up. He managed to leap over the newest lot and score one more hit on Black Doom - and felt something... _shift_ as the alien suddenly collapsed to the floor, all his Chaos-fueled attacks vanishing.

Shadow nearly fell over again as he landed, his ankle suddenly hurting fiercely and unable to support his weight. He glanced down and was appalled at the damage - and the spurting blood told him that an artery was severed, as well as flesh. Dropping down he clamped one hand over the mess. _I need a tourniquet, fast. _He quickly realized that he didn't have anything that would serve. Suddenly something clunked down nearby. Looking up sharply, he realized it was the heal cannon that Sonic had been carrying. He caught a glimpse of the blue hedgehog jogging away from the shield with Knuckles as he reached for the gun with a blood-soaked glove. One puff of blue Chaos energy later, the pain and injury were gone, although the blood remained. Shadow stood up again and approached Black Doom.

Something still felt odd about the being; something Shadow hadn't detected in any of the other aliens. He ignored the puzzle for the moment as the final Chaos Emerald drifted towards him, and joined the six he'd already collected in a ring around him. "Finally, I've got all the Chaos Emeralds!" he announced to the Comet at large. After that much work he was going to announce it whether there was anyone to hear or not.

One person heard, although Black Doom didn't seem impressed. "Shadow! This isn't over yet!" The deep voice was clearly weaker than before, and again Shadow noted the odd 'feel' of the creature at his feet. "The Black Arms will rise again..."

"I am Shadow the Hedgehog, and I made a promise that I intend to keep! With the power of these Emeralds, Black Doom, you and your army are finished! This is who I am!" Suddenly Shadow realized what it was. It was the same feeling he'd gotten from Doom's Eye when he'd first seen it, when it had been projecting the figure of Doom in front of him. But, this wasn't a hologram... was it? He prodded the now-immobile figure with the toe of his bloody hover shoe.

_It's real enough. _He frowned_. I wonder who the leader is now. Surely they have some way of replacing a fallen leader in a hurry. _None of the other aliens seemed to have any real intelligence though, except for Doom's Eye. A stray memory wisped through his brain, Maria studying royalty and governing systems. _The King is dead; long live the King! The king __**is**__ dead, so... where is the king? _

_Well, at least I have memories again._ He looked up at the circling Emeralds again. "Finally," he repeated softly, "I have all the Chaos Emeralds! Now I can uncover the truth about my past... All of it..."

"Well done, Shadow," said Black Doom behind him. As Shadow spun, shocked, to face the being rising through the floor, the deep voice continued, 'Our ritual can now commence as planned. Give me the Chaos Emeralds."

It was Black Doom. It _was_ Black Doom, as the thing on the floor had been Black Doom while they fought - and now Shadow realized that the alien had had this second body - clone, or twin, or whatever - and had transferred his consciousness when the _shift_ had occurred at the end of the fight. Thereafter this Doom had been using the first as a puppet, as he had used the Eye in Westopolis. _That's what the feeling was, Doom's will controlling them. But now– _

"SHADOW!" A chorus of voices made both Ultimate Life-form and alien life-form turn. Sonic and Knuckles were back, with Tails and Amy and Rouge and even Dr. Eggman.

"Shadow," cried Sonic, "give me the Chaos Emeralds!"

"Do not give the Emeralds to Black Doom, Shadow!" seconded the Doctor.

"They're planning to destroy the planet!" Rouge contributed, drowning out Tails' comment, and Amy's.

Black Doom's deep, rolling laughter drowned out any other comments. The entire contingent of dokan and doctor turned to the alien in confusion. "Ignorant fools," said Doom finally. "We're here to save the humans from their own demise. We offer... salvation."

Shadow blinked. "What?" Surely that contradicted everything Doom and the Eye had said up to this point?

"Their greed, thirst for power, and affinity for betrayal has them on a path of self-destruction," the alien explained. Somehow each point cast images into Shadow's mind, culminating with yet another memory of GUN's attack on the Ark. He shook his head, trying to determine what the alien was up to. "Their actions will lead to the extinction of their species. We're here to save them from themselves," Doom paused grandly, "with our perfect order," another pause, "allowing them to live through their desperate lives in peace." _He __**is**__ up to something; he's delaying us_, thought Shadow. _But for what? _Then the alien dropped the other shoe. "Humans are a great energy source for us. They will be well kept."

The statement was met with a chorus of gasps and murmurs of "What?" Humans kept as cattle, to be drained of energy, or slaughtered for food? And what of the dokan, if the aliens took over?

"Let us begin our ritual of prosperity," commanded Doom. Suddenly the Chaos Emeralds were jerked from Shadow's mental grasp and now ranged around Black Doom. "Chaos... CONTROL!" he thundered.

And the entire comet shuddered.


	36. Final Chapter

35. Final Chapter

The septet of Chaos Emeralds glowed brilliantly as they spun around the head of Black Doom. Shadow felt the energy surge as the entire Black Comet teleported... somewhere. "This can't be happening!" he exclaimed. The amount of power being used was incredible! _That can't be __**just**__ the Emeralds and Black Doom! Where else– _And then they were there.

"What was that? What just happened?" Amy was the first to voice the panicked question that everyone was surely thinking. The Comet shuddered again, to the accompaniment of loud but distant thuds.

Sonic answered before Shadow could - and more completely. "Those black creatures just warped the Comet down to the surface using Chaos Control!"

"No!" Rouge got the first word this time, "That's impossible!"

"That's why you needed the Chaos Emeralds," said Shadow. Sonic was right; Doom had used the Emeralds not merely to move the comet, but to utilize the energy that all of the aliens possessed and merge it into a single entity. The combined powers of _all _the aliens, including Doom, had been added to the Emeralds' own. And now he could recognize the 'feel' of Earth from the changed gravity and the aura of the planet and its life-forms.

Doom's laughter rolled over the assemblage again. "Precisely. The Comet's velocity isn't powerful enough to pass through another planet's atmosphere. The Emeralds amplify the space-time control powers of Chaos Control. We need them to charge to full power." The alien flourished one arm grandly, "It's the perfect plan. That's why I needed the professor to help me."

"What!?" gasped Shadow. Surely Professor Gerald hadn't known what Black Doom intended!

"That's insane!" cried Eggman.

Shadow barely heard Sonic's muttered, "Takes one to know one."

Black Doom continued: "The professor was in development of the ultimate life force, but he needed my help. So we made a deal... I helped him, and he promised to deliver me the seven Chaos Emeralds. That's how you were created, Shadow. You would help us do both!"

"Me?" Shadow whispered, staring at the creature in front of him; he felt like there was something stuck in his throat. "I can't believe it..." He sank to his knees, feeling inexplicably weak. The professor had been too smart, surely, to make an open-ended promise - but what could have possessed him to promise the sort of power the Chaos Emeralds contained to a potential enemy? The answer was obvious, though: Maria.

"That can't be!" Eggman was exclaiming. "He betrayed his own people for research? For Black Doom!?" Considering what Eggman had done or tried to do in the past, he seemed a strange one to be objecting.

Sonic, as usual, cut to the heart of the matter, with a surprisingly scornful laugh. "Big deal," he answered his long-time enemy, "we can't just stand here doing nothing."

"Yeah, let's do this!" That was Knuckles. "I'll crush this cosmic rock ball! Ugh!"

_Ugh? _Shadow looked back to see Knuckles in a very strange stance, one fist thrust over his head, and that foot on tiptoe as all his weight was shifted to the other side. He looked like a photo taken mid-leap.

"Knuckles! What's wrong?" As Sonic started to turn towards his friend, he found himself suddenly immobilized mid-twist. "Ugh!" he seconded Knuckles' comment.

Shadow looked at the ground in front of him as an assortment of cries arose behind him, and realized that he too was now stuck in one position. _Not a pose I would have chosen, kneeling like a slave before his master. Move! _he commanded his muscles mentally, but they ignored him. _Well, I know why the delaying tactics, now; he was waiting for this._

Doom was laughing triumphantly, somewhere over his head. "A special weapon," he seemed to answer Shadow's thought, "this gas, once released, is quickly absorbed into your bloodstream. In a moment, total paralysis will hit your nervous system. The end is near, now." Something red moved at the edge of Shadow's vision, and he couldn't even roll his eyes to look at it. _I wonder how much longer I'll be able to keep breathing. _The motion repeated as Doom laughed again, and came closer, revealing itself to be several of the alien blobs. "Ahhh," the overlord's voice took on an indulgent tone, "my dear offspring... Eat and devour these savory dishes!"

"Help me!" squealed Amy. Shadow remembered her disgust at the things in the Doctor's castle. And now she was helpless. "Stop it!!" she demanded, uselessly. Shadow could hear the others alternating threats and pleas, all rendered helpless against this physically weak menace. So this was the plan, to paralyze the people of Earth and feed them to the alien larvae? Several of the blobs oozed past him to join those attacking the others, but one stopped, extruded a few tendrils, and began greedily sucking at the blood that had dried on his shoe._ I need to get out of this!_

"_Remember..." Doom's voice _- not currently, but in memory -_ whispered softly._

_The GUN Commander aimed a gun at Shadow's face. "I will avenge those whose blood was spilled!"_

_His own voice, as he stared out at the ARK, memories returning on Tails' shuttle, "...where I... died?"_

_Eggman, insisting vehemently, "I gave you life!" _

_But no,_ thought Shadow, _that can't be true. I don't think an android, even a part clone one, would be subject to a nerve gas. _

_Black Doom again: "That's how you were created..." _

_Maria, dear, lovely Maria, calling to him across the years, "Please, help me, Shadow..."_

_I am Shadow the hedgehog, the Ultimate Life-form. I was created to be possessed of eternal youth and health, so my body must be able to break down this toxin. I was created to be a weapon, so again, I must be able to resist nerve gases or I would be no more use than human or dokan soldiers. I may have been created by Professor Gerald Robotnik and Black Doom, but I have the right to choose my own way, as any child on the planet. I refuse to be the slave of anyone, and I will not aid those who would destroy this world. I pledge anew and from now, to guard it in Maria's memory._ He tried again to move as the blob shifted position to get at more of the blood on his shoe, and this time his muscles strained as if he were doing isometrics. They didn't actually move, but they tried. Shadow tried to reach for the Chaos Emeralds, but Doom had control of them somehow, so he couldn't access the power. Then the hedgehog blinked (or would have if his eyelids had been able to move). _The aliens, stupid! _He reached again, latched onto the baseline Chaos energy that the dozen-or-so nearby alien larvae contained and yanked it to himself. He felt the toxin burn in his bloodstream as the energy metabolized it to harmlessness, and rose to his feet as life returned to his muscles. He stamped on the now-dormant blob beside him in disgust.

"What?" Black Doom actually fell back a few feet, raising an arm as if to deny the sight of the hedgehog striding towards him.

"I am Shadow the Hedgehog," Shadow informed him coldly. "I've left the past behind me. No one can tell me what to do now! I will destroy you, Black Doom!"

"I gave you life, and THIS is how you repay me?" Another laugh, this one as cold and mirthless as a grave. "The irony of it all is, I gave you life... now... I'll take it back!" The alien turned and glided away, across a different, unshielded bridge and deeper into the heart of the Comet. Shadow followed.

"Shadow!" he heard Rouge call behind him.

"You're our only hope now," said Sonic.

"Shadow, I believe in you." Tails voice in his ear startled him as he jumped onto one of the slime trails to follow Black Doom. Belatedly Shadow realized that he still had he radio receiver in his ear. "You can do it!" The little fox's enthusiasm sounded genuine, if a bit strained.

"Don't you dare give up!" grunted Knuckles, more faintly since he didn't have a communicator himself.

Amy apparently did - she came through loud and clear. "Please, hurry!" she urged.

Rouge had one too, which surprised him not at all. "You're strong enough; I know you are!"

Black Doom actually led him out of the Comet's core, to a chamber near the outer shell, if he hadn't completely lost his sense of direction. After a dizzying maze of corridors and caves, Shadow stepped into the final room to find the alien waiting for him.

"Well done, Shadow. You've gone further than I expected," did Doom sound a bit breathless, a bit less confident? "I'm impressed!" Shadow stalked towards him, determined to finish the battle he'd accepted responsibility for. "But, you still don't understand, do you? The future we offer is the only option for these humans."

Would he never stop? "I've heard enough," Shadow snapped at his enemy. "You're boring me to death, Black Doom! You're going down!!"

And the alien laughed. _Uh oh, that's not right. What...? _Shadow felt suddenly dizzy as the other rumbled, confidence returned, "Such bravado for a little hedgehog. I thought you were different from the rest," he seemed genuinely disappointed, "but maybe not. We are more alike than you think," Doom added, "the same blood runs through our veins."

Shadow reeled with vertigo, clutching as his head as if he could make the world stand still. "This can't be!" With a groan he sank to his knees again. The creature was inside his head! "Just," he gasped, "who are you?"

"Don't you know?" Black Doom had the air of someone about to drop a bombshell, "You were created from MY blood."

"Wha... what?" For an instant Shadow wondered if his ears were dizzy as well. But then the pieces started clicking together. The color similarities, the innate Chaos powers that even Sonic lacked, the alien's certainty all along that Shadow would do as he was told. A few odd bits and pieces that Professor Gerald had dropped so long ago, incomprehensible comments that suddenly fit into a new and frightening context. _A child rejecting his parents' views indeed._

"That's right," Doom was positively gloating now; he knew he had won. "You are a part of me," pain shot through Shadow's head as if felt like a fist squeezed part of his brain, "do you feel that? I can control you. You cannot escape me... nor can you escape your past!" The alien roared with triumphant laughter.

"_Damn_ you!" hissed Shadow in panic and fury. "NO! It's not true...!" He struggled desperately, but the enemy in his mind was harder to grasp than the toxin in his blood, and there were no aliens here to draw energy from.

Then, suddenly a voice from the past spoke into his ear. "Shadow, my son..." A real voice, through his earpiece.

"Professor?" Shadow gasped, as Doom's attention was suddenly distracted.

"What is this!?" demanded the alien. A gesture opened a viewscreen in midair, showing Professor Gerald Robotnik, sitting in front of a camera on the ARK, wearing a clean lab coat and ID badge. With the alien's attention divided, Shadow managed to raise his head and focus on the image.

"If you're listening to this," the elderly scientist continued, "then the worst has happened; you need to know the truth. The government plans to shut down this research facility, within the year certainly, possibly in the next few weeks. The Biolizard's rampage is their excuse; they have declared Project: Shadow a danger to public welfare.

"The government plans to cease all of our research, and imprison all who know about you. I made a terrible mistake, Shadow... It's all my fault...making contact with that Comet," Shadow could hear the exclamations of Sonic and the others through his earpiece as the Professor paused a moment, bowing his head. Then he looked back at the camera. "Now listen very carefully:

"In fifty years the Black Comet will return, but it's not a comet. It's the habitation of an alien race called the Black Arms. Their leader Black Doom helped me in exchange for a pledge to deliver him some 'crystals' - I swear I did not know at the time that they were the Chaos Emeralds. He intends to utilize them somehow to enhance the power of the comet, then they plan to harness its powers to destroy this planet! The only way to stop them...was to develop a way to use the very power THEY intended to use AGAINST them." (Eggman's voice came through Shadow's earpiece, "That's it! It's brilliant!") "I managed to find out what Doom had done - he didn't alter your DNA, Shadow, but added a sort of virus - and nullified it. I think he intended to be able to control you, perhaps read your mind. I left a fraction of it, which seemed to enhance your ability to manage the chaos energies, but you should be able to resist him if you try. And you MUST try!" Black Doom snarled and moved towards the viewscreen.

"Shadow...it's up to you and only you can stop them! I developed the Eclipse Cannon - it's the only weapon that can destroy that Black Comet. Shadow, you are the only hope to save mankind as we know it; the future of this planet depends on...you!"

Maria suddenly jumped into view, draping herself over the startled Professor's shoulders. "Don't worry, Grandfather. Shadow and I will protect this planet. Right, Shadow?"

_Right, Maria. _He refocused, felt Black Doom's will trying to re-establish control of his mind - and suddenly remembered a line from a movie she'd loved. _"For my will is as strong as yours..." _

Doom was laughing again as he dismissed the screen. "Gerald, you fool!" he scoffed. "Shadow is already in my control... What's this!?"

Shadow silently mouthed the end of the quote as he mentally ducked out from under Doom's control:_ "And you have NO power over me."_ He stood up and glowered at his foe.

"Well, well, well," Shadow could tell that alien wasn't as sanguine as he was trying to appear, "seems like you're immune to my mind control."

"You have no control over me, Black Doom. I now understand why I am here. I made a promise and I'm here to keep it. Today, I put my past behind me." He leapt at Doom, who dematerialized with an incredible surge of Chaos energy... but left the Emeralds behind.

"Have it your way, Shadow," the voice rumbled in his head; Black Doom could still get in that far. "So be it... Be prepared to meet your maker. Your past, present and future end here... today!" The alien was losing his calmness, and his voice rose in anger. "Prepare to die! Say 'goodbye', Shadow, as you witness my true wrath."

Shadow closed his eyes and called the Emeralds. They sprang towards him as if glad to be free of Doom, and he started pulling power from them. One tendril he sent out to locate Black Doom - who had pulled vastly more Chaos energy as he fled than required for mere teleportation, and 'felt' very strange now. The rest he pulled in through a process he'd only experienced once before, and felt all of his memories slotting into place as if they actually had been stored in the Emeralds. Professor Gerald had been delighted and Maria fascinated by his eidetic memory, which was part of why the loss had troubled him so much; he wasn't used to forgetting _anything_, much less everything. But now he felt all his senses improving along with his memory, the overwhelming and at the same time exhilarating surge of energy that came with his super form. And he realized, too, that part of the energies he was accessing came from the friends below, their belief in him and his ability to stop the Black Arms. He opened his eyes and took flight, punching his way out through the roof of the Black Comet like a needle through a balloon. And couldn't believe his eyes.

Black Doom had become enormous. Suddenly Shadow realized why Doom had left the Emeralds behind - he'd drawn the power to merge with _all_ of the Black Arms, draining them of their own energy and melding their flesh with his own. The vast, misshapen thing before him glared out of one eye, a multipartite mouth folding and unfolding below. There were two enormous wings, each the length of an entire jet plane, two arms, and the rest of the body was merely a blobby mass dangling below, except for a club-like tail that almost resembled a second head. Now having access to the life energies of the entire race, Doom had decided he no longer required the Emeralds. And since he'd absorbed all his subordinates, there were few, if any, left to increase the Emeralds' power by supporting him.

The creature's lone eye saw Shadow as he emerged from the comet. "I gave you life, and yet you defy me? So be it! You shall pay for your ingratitude with relentless pain!" The thing that had been Black Doom bellowed, and a cloud of shapes and dust rose from the ground below.

Shadow looked down quickly and saw a ruined city, marked and ravaged by the invading aliens. It might have been Westopolis, or even Central City for all he could tell; regardless, the demonic creature before him was levitating a shield of sorts composed of chunks of buildings, cars, slabs of pavement, and other things. Shadow drew on the Chaos energy within him, watching his aura flare a brighter gold, and plunged into the mess, dodging a taxi, a blob of slime, and a fire hydrant, then snagging three rings out of the debris as he flew past them._ Ah, yes. Must remember to keep an eye out for rings. _He remembered now, the last battle against the Biolizard, as he and Super Sonic took turns catching rings and battling the berserk Chaos lizard. He also remembered the power failing at the end, as the watchers on the ARK thought the battle won and their support faded - and he discovered that he didn't have enough energy of his own to control what he had borrowed. He caught several more rings, vowing to be more careful this time, and emerged from the floating rubble within a few feet of the monster.

"Shadow, can you hear me?" Doctor Eggman's voice crackled over the receiver in his ear. "We've managed to escape from the Comet. There's no need to hold back; cause as much havoc as you need to!"

"Go for it, Shadow!" That was Tails, still cheering the hero on.

Then the usual hero put in his two bits: "With the power of the Chaos Emeralds, you can launch a Chaos Spear! Use it to impale that thing!"

Shadow felt his lip curl, but Sonic was right; the Chaos Spear was probably a good choice of weapon. Of course, Shadow had never needed much power beyond his own to launch one. Still, this was a considerably bigger foe than he was used to; he'd really only attacked practice targets and Sonic in the past. He raised a hand and drew power, shaping it with his mind until he held a visibly glowing lance of pure force. Remembering the Black Bulls, he hurled it full force at the monster's one eye. "Chaos Spear!"

Unfortunately, just at that moment, Doom's jaws gaped and a blast of flame roared forth. Shielded by his aura, Shadow wasn't hurt, but both he and the spear were knocked away. He tumbled dizzyingly for a moment before he managed to right himself. _It's a good thing they aren't in the Comet. It's an even better thing that this is a destroyed city - everyone should have been evacuated already!_ He heard the others muttering over the radio as he surged back towards Doom.

"Is that thing invincible?" Eggman was asking. "No! He's got to have some sort of weak point!" Since they didn't seem to actually be talking to him, Shadow ignored them and fired a second Chaos Spear at Doom. This time the bolt slammed into the thing's eye... which flew off of the head and circled around to hide behind the creature. _What the...?_

"That's it!" Rouge's voice. She did seem to be talking to him. "The eye! His weak point has to be the eye that's been following you!" He realized she was right; the creature's eye was, well, Doom's Eye. He circled around it far enough to see the eye had reimplanted itself on the tail - which on closer inspection appeared to be a second head. He dodged back as this head also tried to breathe fire at him. He charged another Chaos Spear and the eye fled back around to the first head as the second one bellowed in fury. He tried a second Chaos Spear which bounced off the monster's hide with no apparent effect.

"All right then!" Knuckles said briskly. "Shadow, his eye keeps moving - you've got to track it down." They apparently had some way to see what was going on. Probably, the radio earpiece that Tails had given him was also a camera. Shadow started to loop around Doom again and the thing simply vanished.

It didn't go far. Doom had apparently run out of nearby objects to cloak itself with, for the first thing it did was summon up a new shroud from below. Shadow found himself fending off more cars, whole floors of buildings, and baby buggies as he tried to get in close to the monster again. There were a lot of rings pulled up this time as well. He managed to whack the Eye a third time, and again had to circle around.

"Why?" roared the monster. Why can't you understand that these humans are the parasites of this world? Absolute power is the only way to bring order to the planet;" -_ some order_, thought Shadow, knocking away half of a city bus - "the humans must be eliminated! Shadow, open your eyes. Realize that sympathizing with these humans has all been a mistake!"

Shadow dodged a stream of fire and hurled another Chaos Spear but Doom manages to interpose a wing. And then it teleported away again to the far side of the Black Comet. Shadow skimmed low over the dark surface after Doom, feeling the cold of space still sucking heat into the planetoid.

"Shadow," Doctor Eggman sounded a bit slurred, "can you hear me? The gas from the Comet has," he wheezed a moment, "made its way into our shelter..."

Amy cried out in the background, "I can't move!"

Knuckles choked into the microphone, "Sh-Shadow... Don't worry about us... You've got to... destroy that thing!"

Doom's voice crept into Shadow's mind as well as his ears, "Before long that gas will have spread over the entire planet. Shadow, cease these futile attempts to resist. You alone cannot change this planet's fate!"

_But I'm not alone_, thought Shadow. He could feel the others through the Chaos Emeralds, their bodies might be faltering from the gas, but their hearts still believed in him. And as long as he held to Maria's memory, there was someone who would always believe in him. He frowned though, listening to the radio as he drew near the beast once again.

"Wh-wh-what do we do?" Tails sounded sleepy and scared at the same time. "I can't... keep my... eyes..." The gas seemed to have change some when it mixed with Earth's atmosphere though, it sounded as if it was as much a knockout gas as a paralyzing agent. And clearly it was slower to take full effect. That may have been why they were able to escape in the first place.

"Sh-Shadow," Rouge said, "I believe in you... You've... gotta finish this..." There was a thump, as of a body hitting the floor.

"Ah! Shadow!" Sonic, was fighting it off better than most of the others, but it was clearly getting to him too. "You're supposed to be the Ultimate Life-form... right? You've gotta... keep goin–" His voice trailed off with a second thump as Shadow punched through Doom's latest debris cloud and slammed the Eye with another force spear.

"Shadow... can you hear me?" Eggman again; his larger body size probably gave him resistance to the gas. "This might be the last chance I have to speak to you, so," he gasped audibly for air. "What I said, about having created you... it was all a lie. Everyone thought you died during that horrible incident... but I rescued you, with one of my robots... You lost your memories, that's all... You really are the Ultimate Life-form my grandfather created!"

_I __**knew**__ it! _With a surge of elation at the Doctor's confession that he _was_ real, Shadow slammed home one more Chaos Spear. And the thing in front of him gave an enormous wail. "Im-impossible! I am the supreme being that rules this universe! I am the immortal life form! I am the ultimate power!" The thing plummeted, still wailing, to splatter across the ruined city, the body breaking into its component Black Arms as it fell.

"This is the end of you," Shadow said softly, as he watched it fall, "and the end of my cursed past."


	37. Saying Goodbye

AN: So yes, I know the last chapter was called Final Chapter, but that was because of the Final Story; I could hardly just walk away and leave the Comet lying over the city, now could I? Please skip on down and finish the story (this IS the last chapter, I promise) and come back up here when you're done...

Okay, thanks for reading my story(ies), I know some of you have enjoyed them, because you've said so; I hope the rest of you did as well. When I started out (way back at Descent into Darkness) I did intend to take Shadow all the way through Battle and/or Sonic 06, but since 06 never came to PC, I haven't played it. (Yes I could YouTube it, but you don't get the same feel.) So Shadow's going on a little hiatus until I get enough free time to rent a 360 or something. Meanwhile, those of you who like Knuckles and/or my writing can head over to the intro for Three There Are, but I warn you it may not get weekly posts yet because I only have 6 chapters written. Again, thanks for reading!

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36. Saying Goodbye

Shadow turned towards the vast bulk of the Black Comet, larger than many towns, where it stood on a half-dozen thick tentacles that had been extruded after Black Doom brought it to Earth. "Only one thing left to do," he muttered as he dove under its ovoid body, "to put the past behind me!" He put his hands against the belly of the Comet, feeling like an ant at the base of a skyscraper, and summoned up all the power the Emeralds could offer. For whatever reason, the paralyzing gas seemed to have begun dissipating the instant Doom died, and he could feel his friends reviving in their renewed support. He could also tell that he was getting other support, lots of it, from somewhere... He took a deep breath as the Chaos energy surged around him. "Chaos... CONTROL!" The Comet, and the gold-lit hedgehog beneath it, vanished. He placed the comet carefully, in range of the Eclipse Cannon but out of line with Earth or the patched-up Moon, then teleported himself on to the ARK, into the Cannon's control room. Summoning the Emeralds one more time as he dropped his 'super' form, he slotted them into the power plate and tapped in commands he'd learned fifty years before.

He waited impatiently while the Emeralds sank down to be arrayed around the duplicate altar below and the mechanisms that harnessed their power began to respond. Finally, he felt the Eclipse Cannon drawing up power - far more than when Black Doom destroyed the Presidential Manor, more even than the shot Dr. Eggman had fired on the moon. Finally the status lights shifted to green and he placed his gloved fingers lightly on top of the firing keys. He closed his eyes a moment, remembering Professor Gerald explaining how to activate the Cannon (telling them at the time is was for near-Earth asteroids) and Maria's slender fingers ghosting over the buttons without pressing them. One side of his mouth quirked, _Near-Earth asteroids indeed_. He opened his eyes and double-checked the coordinates, making certain that the Black Comet was in the center of the target area and nothing else was in the path of the beam. Then he paid his final debt to his creator and pressed down the firing button. The tip of the cannon flared and a massive blue-green beam lanced out, spearing through the Black Comet and sundering it into fragments, a large percentage of which were vaporized almost instantaneously. Shadow watched the monitor of a long time as the remaining pieces dispersed, propelled by the force of the blast. He felt strangely empty, as if in finding his memories he had lost something else. Finally he shut the Cannon down and left the control station, leaving the Chaos Emeralds in the Cannon's shrine.

Shadow glided silently through the empty corridors. Several sections were closed off by heavy pressure doors, sealing the research lab and medical wing off from areas where the GUN robots and aliens had battled. There were still some GUN robots around, but the functional ones had mostly clustered at the docking bay, where military shuttles were arriving to take them away. The Commander had actually requested permission for them to land, when he called the ARK to convey official congratulations and thanks from the governments and armed forces of Earth, and personal ones from not only the President but Mokie himself. "Maria would have been proud," that one had said. Shadow had sent back a text message giving permission to evacuate the robots, but said nothing further, and hadn't answered the other messages at all. There had been one from Tails, with congratulations from Sonic and Knuckles and all, and a separate one from Rouge: "I hope you're all right, Shadow. And that you found what you needed. And– oh, I'm no good at this sort of stuff. But the President is planning to offer you a job, and I hear the GUN Commander is too. Talk about a complete change of heart... I don't know why he hated you, but if he won't tell me I'll have to make you spill it one of these days. Send me the Chaos Emeralds when you're finished with them; you owe me big for breaking you out of Eggman's base."

Shadow shook his head, smiling to himself as he remembered that last bit. _Good old Rouge, mercenary to the last - or so she'd like everyone to believe. Including herself._ In truth, he wasn't quite sure what to do about her. He liked her, but, well... He'd only known her a few weeks, if that. He'd only known ANYBODY a few weeks, except for Mokie, although he hadn't really known him on the ARK, either. He'd known _of_ the boy as Maria's friend; he knew the man who commanded Earth's military forces not at all. He braked and looked out the closest window, where the Earth hung mostly shrouded in night. Lights scattered densely across the northern continent and more sparsely across the southern regions where the dokan lived. "Everyone that I truly _know_ is fifty years dead," he said softly, his voice sounding oddly hollow in the silence of the corridor. He looked up and down the metal and stone hallway. "So is this place."

A faint tremor made his reflection in the window shiver; probably a shuttle launching. Yes, there it was, pulling smoothly away from the space colony towards the Earth. _I remember, Maria. I remember our dreams, and the two children who were going to go down to Earth and save everyone on the planet, so that everyone could live happily ever after. _"I_was_ a child," he said, almost wonderingly. "I was physically matured, and had all that knowledge from my flash training, but I was still a child; relying on my father and older sister to tell me what to do and what I would be." _And then I was frozen that way, in that stage, and Gerald tampered with my memories as he went mad with grief; and when I was awakened, I accepted orders from the first authority figure that was available, because I didn't know how to do anything else. And then, almost immediately after, I fell– _He shuddered involuntarily, remembering the start of that fall, the loss of a bracelet as he tried to use it for power, the desperate grab for any energy he could reach to teleport himself closer to Earth... _I don't really remember what happened next; but assuming I did teleport myself close to the ground, I'd still have hit with all that kinetic energy of the plummet I was in the midst of. It's no wonder Doctor Eggman expected me to be dead, or that he had difficulty reviving me. __**I'd**__ expect me to be dead after a blow like that. _

He started skating again, purposefully now, headed to a destination he knew better than any other. _So, what do I do now? I saved the planet from Black Doom, as Professor Gerald wished; that should pay in full an awful lot of debts. Doctor Eggman saved me, but he'd already tried to use me to take over the world the first time I woke up. So that was more him paying me back for my help. And I didn't kill him in the volcano base, so I don't see that I owe him anything. GUN? No, I'm a person, and I do not belong to anybody. I might choose to work for them, or not, but I do not __**owe**__ them allegiance. I don't think Mokie will pursue me any longer._There might be others, he realized, who might find the Ultimate Life-form a tempting target. They would not find him an easy one, though. And he had help out there. Sonic and his friends, and Rouge, would support him if he needed it. And as Rouge had said when they were in Central City, he _was_a hero to much of the planet. He had felt the force of all those people, trusting that he could finish off the Black Comet, or else even the Chaos Emeralds could not have given him enough power to move it.

He paused outside a door long enough for it to slide open, then stepped quietly 'home'. The wing that he had shared with Gerald and Maria was dustier than it had been fifty years ago, but untouched except for where he had slept in his bed that one night, after Eggman had freed him from the GUN base. He looked in through the Professor's door and shook his head fondly at the mess under the dust. An old schematic on the wall caught his eye and he frowned briefly, wondering what had become of the Gizoid. It was supposed to have been returned to GUN; he'd have to look into it the next time it was on Earth. He sighed and moved on.

The next door was his, but he walked on past it to the third bedroom. Blue ruffles, not Sonic the Hedgehog blue, but a tint to match her beautiful eyes. A couple of schoolbooks tossed haphazardly on the desk and a collection of fiction filed much more neatly on shelves. A stuffed pony, and a stuffed hedgehog (brown) that Rafe had sent her sat on the counterpane next to the electric-purple fox that Todd had sent in retaliation for Rafe's present. A few posters pinned on the walls, and a photo. Shadow walked across the floor, leaving tracks in the dust, and took the photo down. Maria grinned out of it at him, standing beside her seated grandfather. He looked at it thoughtfully as he returned to the main room, with its huge window.

_She looks so young. She __**was**__ so young. And Father doesn't __**look**__ like he's about to go crazy._ Professor Gerald Robotnik had created 'Shadow the Hedgehog' as a part of Project: Shadow, to research eternal youth and health and not-so-incidently seek a cure for his granddaughter. He had also built into the Ultimate Life-form the intelligence and skills necessary to be a warrior, and resistance to enable him to defeat Black Doom and the Black Arms when they invaded. The latter had been accomplished. The cure– Though Shadow would willingly have given Maria anything she needed, fate had decreed otherwise. _When I was a child..._

_Goodbye, Father. I have defeated the Black Arms as you wished, now I must seek my own future. Goodbye, Maria. I will never forget my dearest sister... I love you both._

Shadow's eyes were looking at the picture, but his mind was seeing something else: a red-striped black hedgehog that depended on others for direction and guidance. A hedgehog that had believed as sincerely as Maria had that dreams would all come true, good guys would always win, and nothing bad would ever really happen to him or his family. _Time to grow up, Shadow. Bad things can happen for no reason at all, and to good people. _Now he would choose his own path, and though he'd be guided by the memories and teachings of his past, he would not be ruled by them.

"Goodbye forever," he said, "Shadow the Hedgehog." As he let the picture fall, he sent the memory of his younger self to join the memories of Maria and Gerald; never to be forgotten, but never again to be constantly sought after.

_The king is dead; long live the king._


End file.
